Ministry of Health Authorizes Vertical Isolation for States Little Affected by Coronavirus

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Ministry of Health announced that as of next Monday, April 13th, the country’s municipalities and states that have not exceeded the 50 percent occupancy rate of health services may begin a transition to a format where only a few groups are quarantined, a measure that has become known as vertical isolation.

The measure was advocated in statements by President Jair Bolsonaro. The Ministry believes that each state and municipality faces the pandemic differently and, therefore, differentiated actions should be implemented in relation to social distancing, based on different virus circulation scenarios.

“The goal is to promote a gradual return to the movement of people, including work activities, safely, preventing a potential explosion of cases without the local health system having time to absorb them and ensure adequate assistance to the population,” says the note released by the Ministry.

However, places that have an incidence rate 50 percent higher than the national average should preserve these social distancing measures from all sectors of society until health materials and supplies are sufficient, considering the potential for increased transmission of the virus.

According to data from the Ministry of Health, so far only the states of São Paulo (10.5), Rio de Janeiro (8.4), Ceará (11.0), Amazonas (12.6), and the Federal District (15.5) have an incidence coefficient higher than the national average, which is 5.7 per 100,000 inhabitants.

In general, Brazil is in the localized epidemic stage. The duration and severity of each stage of the pandemic may vary depending on the local public health response.

The Ministry of Health’s executive secretary, João Gabbardo, explains what measures should be proportional to the reality of each municipality, each region and each capital city. “We discussed further with states and municipalities so that no identical measures would be implemented for entirely different situations”.

“We’ve created virus circulation parameters and bed capacity parameters that may enable the administrator to take these quarantine measures with greater security. In order to take this approach, we need to be sure from the perspective of individual protective equipment, backup beds, ICUs, and human resources,” Gabbardo added.

Methods to fight the coronavirus

Currently, the measure adopted by most regions in Brazil is the Extended Social Distancing (DAS), when all sectors of society need to remain at home for the duration of the measure decreed by local managers.

“The method should be employed in places where the number of confirmed cases has impacted more than 50 percent of the installed capacity of the local health system. It should be done until the supply of equipment (beds, individual protective equipment, ventilators and laboratory tests), in addition to health teams, are available in sufficient quantity to safely promote the transition to the Selective Social Distance (DSS) strategy,” says the note.

In places where confirmed cases have not impacted more than 50 percent of the health system capacity, the Ministry of Health recommends the transition to Selective Social Distancing.

“In these cases, only a few groups remain in isolation, with emphasis on those at higher risk of aggravation of the disease, such as the elderly and people with chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, or risk conditions such as obesity and risk pregnancy,” according to the note.

In summary, in places where there is a low circulation of the coronavirus and, consequently, a reduced need for the use of health service structures, if the conditioning factors are ensured, it is possible to return to work and resume economic activity.