Brazil´s Bahia state at risk of healthcare collapse

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The surge in Covid cases has placed the state of Bahia on alert for the risk of a collapse in its healthcare system.

There are at least nine healthcare facilities in Bahia in a critical situation, with ICU or clinical beds at 100% occupancy. The south of Bahia records maximum occupancy in 3 of the region’s main hospitals – it was in one of these facilities that 93 year-old Dona Margarida spent at least two days trying to find a vacancy.

“They were trying to get an ICU bed to intubate her, but unfortunately there was no time. In the early hours of Thursday, February 11th, she died in her apartment, they couldn’t find her an ICU bed”, lamented José Carlos Filho, Margarida’s nephew.

In Feira de Santana, the second largest city in the state, the Covid field hospital’s ICU bed occupancy stands at 88%.

“This high number of cases is expected to continue for some time. On Saturday, for instance, we had a traffic jam of ambulances entering the field hospital,” reported Francisco Mota, the hospital’s medical director.

“At this rate, demand will be much higher than supply, and then we may experience a collapse in the city of Salvador for the first time, because of the carelessness that part of the population is showing at this time,” alerted Salvador’s Health Secretary Léo Prates.

Bahia today recorded transmission levels similar to August 2020, when the numbers were still very high. Another reason for concern is that the state has also registered ten cases of the new Brazilian strain.

Bahia has extended the suspension of school classes until February 21st because of the advance of the disease, but this weekend a court injunction granted the Private School Owners Syndicate’s request and authorized the immediate return of in-person classes.

“We can return in an organized way, according to protocols, in an optional way, as the private schools union has always advocated at this time of pandemic,” argued Jorge Coelho, from the school owners’ union.

Earlier in the evening, the injunction was suspended at the request of the state attorney general’s office. As a result, in-person classes have once again been suspended. Governor Rui Costa says the healthcare system is at risk of collapsing.

“Unfortunately if this rate is maintained we will have an obligation to impose restrictions in order to save lives, otherwise the health system will not be able to attend patients,” he said.

Source: G1