RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The São Paulo government announced Wednesday, June 23, that it would extend pandemic control restrictions now in effect until July 15. The state is currently in a so-called “transition phase” of the São Paulo plan.
The decision was made following an increase in the number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths from Covid-19, according to Governor João Doria (PSDB). The recommendation was made by the state government’s Covid-19 Contingency Center.
The group’s coordinator, Paulo Menezes, said the state had an 8% increase in the number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last two weeks (from 480 to 520). However, the number of hospitalizations per 100,000 inhabitants decreased by 5%, from 72 to 68.
The rules for businesses in the current phase remain the same: establishments can operate between 6 AM and 9 PM, with a maximum occupancy rate of 40%. This includes local consumption in restaurants, bars, shopping centers, and personal service in beauty and hair salons, cultural spaces, clubs, and sports studios.
The so-called “curfew” is observed between 9 PM and 5 AM. In addition, the government maintains obligatory remote telework for non-essential administrative activities and staggered clock-in and clock-out hours for commercial, service, and industrial activities.
Vaccines
Doria attributed the disruption Tuesday of vaccinations in the state capital, São Paulo, to delays in delivering vaccines by the Ministry of Health to the states.
Citing similar cases in other states, he denied that the shortage of doses resulted from a lack of coordination between City Hall and the São Paulo government. “This does not mean disharmony, mismatch, lack of understanding between the powers of the state and the municipality,” the governor said.
The director-president of the Butantan Institute, Dimas Covas, confirmed that the institution could receive two-thirds of the contracted 12,000 liters of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) in July and August, which, according to him, will allow the delivery of 100 million doses of CoronaVac to the National Immunization Plan (PNI). “And then we’ll get right into the delivery of additional vaccines for the state of São Paulo,” he said.