Quarantine in São Paulo City Will Be Extended, with Even Tighter Restrictions

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – The city of São Paulo will have its quarantine extended beyond May 10th and will enforce stricter restrictions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the city. On Wednesday, April 29th, the city recorded 1,456 deaths from the disease.

“The decision has already been made, we have no way to relax the isolation measures from May 10th. It is absolutely impossible for us to do that in the capital, rather the opposite, we are starting to discuss reinforcing some of these measures so that the isolation in the city may increase from this 48 percent rate”, said the municipal Health Secretary, Edson Aparecido.

As of May 11th, the state government should relax the restrictions on business in some regions where there are few Covid-19 cases.

Among the new restrictions, the São Paulo City may block off some of the city’s streets. “We block some streets and we manage to reduce traffic significantly, discouraging people from leaving their homes, particularly in regions where the pressure on the health system has been continuously increasing,” Aparecido said. Among the regions that should have roadblocks are Brasilândia, in the far north of the capital. The district of Brasilândia registers the highest death toll in the city, with 81 fatalities by April 24th.

Increase in notifications

With social isolation at around 48 percent in recent days, the city of São Paulo has seen a significant increase in new confirmed cases of the disease, from an average of 812 notifications per day to 3,400, according to the Municipal Health Secretariat.

“If we add to the number of confirmed deaths, the suspected deaths, we exceed 3,100 people in the city, which is quite serious. And in the last four, five days, there has been a significant change in the numbers as of Friday, April 24th. From February 26th, when the first case in the city was reported until April 23rd, we had 45,518 notifications, an average of 812 notifications per day. In only three days, April 24th, 25th, and 26th, this hiked to 56,000 notifications. That means we jumped from 812 to just over 3,400 notifications a day,” Edson Aparecido said.

The population’s lack of compliance with social isolation concerns the government, as the impact of contamination can be reflected in an average of 10 to 15 days when the disease is expected to peak in May. With the sudden increase in coronavirus cases in the city, the health system is overburdened and cannot take in new patients.

“This means that we are starting to spread the disease in the city very quickly and obviously causing deaths. There is no shadow of a doubt that we have definitely started to climb this so-called curve at a very steep speed,” he argued.

According to the secretary, social isolation in São Paulo has led to the disease taking longer to reach the interior of the state.

São Paulo neighborhoods with the highest number of deaths by April 24th were:

• Brasilândia (North Zone) – 81 deaths
• Sapopemba (East Zone) – 77 deaths
• São Mateus (East Zone) – 58 deaths
• Cidade Tiradentes (East Zone) – 51 deaths
• Vila Nova Cachoeirinha (North Zone) – 50 deaths
• Sacomã (South Zone) – 50 deaths
• Freguesia do Ó (North Zone) – 47 deaths
• Capão Redondo (South Zone) – 46 deaths

Source: G1