Covid-19: Brazil exceeds US peak death rate per million

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil has advanced by leaps and bounds in the worst of all rankings during the last few weeks, that of deaths due to Covid-19. Indicators show that the country has exceeded 15,000 weekly deaths.

This represents more than 70 deaths per million inhabitants, which is double last year’s peak and exceeds the worst rate registered per week by the United States – which was 66 per million, according to data collected and organized by the Instituto Estáter.

The future picture is worse when one looks at other countries that have already left the peak. Following this pace, the sinister indicator could quickly surpass the average of the main European countries, which was around 85 deaths per million. Applied here, this would be the equivalent of 18,000 deaths per week.

The data regarding positive diagnoses, which have not yet stopped growing, indicate that Brazil is moving toward the average rate of the main European countries. At the beginning of the month, new positives per week were around 400,000, and now they are already around 500,000 – a 25% increase. Therefore, this is not a post-carnival outbreak.

The alert that remains is: the number is morbid, but it is still far from the 125 deaths per million of the peak in the UK or the 180 in Portugal. There is, therefore, room for the picture to get even worse.

If the system is already close to collapse at this point, what will it do in the coming weeks? How will hospitals cope with this still growing demand related to Covid-19? The worst situation experienced in the country, so far, occurred in Manaus (AM), with a lack of beds and oxygen.

To add to the seriousness of the scenario, the vaccination rate in Brazil is far behind the United States and other Latin American countries. Previously in Brazil, there was a large difference in the curve between the states. Suddenly, however, those where the contagion was more moderate advanced at the same time, which gave a greater homogeneity to the health crisis in the country – and continental dimensions to the numbers.

Source: Examen