State with Third Highest Number of Covid-19 Cases, Rio Contagion Rate Slows

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The state with the third highest number of coronavirus infections in Brazil, behind São Paulo and Ceará, Rio de Janeiro has achieved the feat of reducing deaths and new cases of disease amid social isolation flexibilization.

The month of June recorded the peak of the disease in Rio: on June 19th there were 6,060 new cases and there were 324 deaths on June 3rd. However, in the second week of June, there was a 36.2 percent reduction in both rates compared to the preceding week. The same occurred in the last week of the month, which registered a 33 percent drop compared to the third week of June.

On Monday, July 13th, the state health secretariat’s bulletin reported 2,360 new cases and 59 deaths in the previous 24 hours. On Sunday, July 12th, the state experienced a system failure in the SUS (Unified Health System), which produced lagged data – only nine new cases and nine deaths were reported.

According to experts, the phenomenon is attributable to the experience of doctors in the treatment of Covid-19, the growing rate of immunization among the Rio de Janeiro population, and the widespread wearing of masks. “The situation is more stable than between April and May, when we reached the peak of infections, which can create a false sense of safety.”

“We will know if the relaxation of measures will cause a further increase in cases within four weeks of its inception, that is, from August. We must bear in mind that the virus continues to circulate,” explains infectologist André Siqueira, of the National Institute of Infectology.

Siqueira and other public health authorities are concerned about the repetition of the events observed on July 2nd, when the city’s food and beverage purveyors were reopened and were visited by hundreds of customers. At the time, the measures listed in the “new normal” guide were ignored, and only waiters wore their personal protection equipment. The situation, which led to criticism on social media for promoting crowded points, is recurrent.

According to pulmonologist Elie Fiss, a researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz German Hospital, there has been an improvement in the care and treatment of patients who tested positive for Covid-19. “As soon as the pandemic reached the country the guidance was to intubate patients as soon as their health condition worsened but, over time, we found less invasive ways to stabilize them. All of this contributed to reducing the risk of death,” she says.

The lack of information also contributed to the poor protection of people, who were unaware of the value of social distancing and hygiene measures that reduce the chance of contagion. Another protocol revisited in this period of time was the use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine.

“Unlike today, when we know the cons of these drugs, at the start of the pandemic it appeared that chloroquine would provide advantages for treatment. Many doctors, including myself and my team, have stopped using it,” concludes Fiss.

In all, 132,044 cases have been confirmed and 11,474 people have died in the state since the pandemic began. There are still 1,082 deaths under investigation. Among those confirmed, 111,189 patients have recovered from the disease.

Source: Veja