RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Government Management Group meeting with governor Carlos Moisés da Silva and the secretaries of Finance, the state Executive Office, Health and the state Prosecutor General’s Office lasted over five hours to decide on the total lockdown decree in the state this weekend.
At the end of the meeting, which began at 4 PM on Thursday, February 25th, at the Casa da Agronômica, governor Carlos Moisés decided to decree a total lockdown in Santa Catarina as of 11 PM this Friday and until 6 AM on Monday.
The same strict restrictions will be in place on the first weekend of March, between the 6th and 8th. The decree is expected to be the most stringent, repeating the total closure in March 2020.
From the said time, the same restrictive measures currently in place are reinstated. The same decree should also apply for the first weekend in March.
The meeting was attended by the members of the Management Group. Secretary André Motta Ribeiro attended remotely from Brasília.
The government was faced with a difficult decision, between preserving lives and protecting the economy. It chose to spare human lives.
The data on the explosive advance of Covid-19 alarmed government officials. The numbers are indeed staggering. In only two weeks there was a 70% surge in the number of infections in Santa Catarina.
Hospitalizations have also increased to unimaginable proportions, with over 900 patients in hospitals, of which 780 in the SUS (Unified Health System) ICUs and the remainder in private facilities.