São Paulo Has Passed Peak of Its Epidemic, Says Municipal Health Secretary

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The city of São Paulo has already experienced the peak of the epidemic. The statement comes from the Municipal Secretary of Health, Edson Aparecido, in an exclusive interview with Rádio Bandeirantes.

One of the indicators showing the virus’ behavior in the capital is the number of hospitalization requests for Covid-19 patients. The average had reached 350 in late April and stood at 37 last week, but now it has dropped to only 14 daily requests. It has decreased 96 percent in relation to the worst moment of the disease in the city.

According to the Secretary, despite the reopening of the street trade and shopping malls, the trend is for the capital to show a drop in deaths in the coming weeks.

“For almost 20 days now we’ve been recording a reduction in hospitalizations and stability in the number of cases, which means we’re going to enter a downward curve in deaths. Surely, we’ve already passed the most difficult moment in what is called the peak of the epidemic in São Paulo,” Edson Aparecido said.

Average rate of increase in the number of cases

The greatest increase was observed in mid-March, with a 17 percent rise in the daily incidence and in early May, reaching 15 percent. However, from May 16th through last week, this rate remained stable, with increases of around three percent every seven days.

Secretary Edson Aparecido also said that there is no decision taken on the closure of activities at the Pacaembu Field Hospital, which currently counts only 33 hospitalized patients.

Serological survey

The first results of the serological survey the City of São Paulo is conducting show that 1.2 million people may have been infected with the coronavirus in the city.

The survey is conducted by testing people in all neighborhoods in the city. In the first stage, 5,416 people were tested in the capital’s 96 districts.

In all, the survey’s plan is for 45,000 people to be tested – with this number, the picture will be more realistic, according to officials from the Health Secretariat. Currently, the city officially counts 118,708 confirmed cases.

This means that according to data from the first stage of the serological survey, São Paulo may have ten times more people infected by Covid-19 than were previously estimated.