Covid-19: Contagion rate in Brazil hits record low

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In one and a half year of the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil, the country had never registered such a large drop in the rolling average of cases compared to figures of two weeks ago.

The rolling average of daily cases on Thursday, July 8, was 48,636.9, while for deaths it was 1,440.6 – the lowest since February and March, respectively.

On Thursday, July 8, the average number of new cases was 37.05% lower than on June 24, 15 days ago. The rolling daily average of deaths was 23.24% lower than that registered two weeks ago.

The comparison is established by infectologists to assess whether a location is in an upward, stable or downward situation in the pandemic.

To determine a scenario of consistent decline, the rate needs to be 15% lower, which was the case in Brazil 9 days ago with respect to both infections and deaths.

According to specialists, the scenario is directly related to the current speed of the vaccination process in the country. The average number of doses distributed to fight the disease stands at around 1.3 million per day in July, above the goal of 1 million set by the federal government.

It is worthy of note, however, that the infection and fatality rates are still above the 2020 numbers and the consistent drop now is also due to the aggressive surge in the first months this year.

Rolling averages are calculation by adding up all records for the past 7 days and dividing the total by 7, thereby achieving a broad perspective of the current moment of the pandemic.

In the past 24 hours, Brazil registered 53,725 new positive diagnoses and 1,639 new deaths from Covid-19. The pandemic total now registers 18,962,762 infections and 530,179 deaths nationwide.

Source: Veja