{"id":114490,"date":"2020-11-18T13:00:01","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T10:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/hard-hit-brazil-threatened-by-second-wave-of-virus\/"},"modified":"2020-11-18T13:00:01","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T10:00:01","slug":"hard-hit-brazil-threatened-by-second-wave-of-virus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/hard-hit-brazil-threatened-by-second-wave-of-virus\/","title":{"rendered":"#Hard-hit Brazil threatened by second wave of virus"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Hard-hit Brazil threatened by second wave of virus<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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After struggling for months to get its spiraling COVID-19 death toll under control, Brazil is now threatened by the nightmare scenario that has already shaken the United States and Europe: a second wave.\n <\/p>\n

Brazil has been one of the countries hit hardest by the pandemic, with more than 166,000 people killed\u2014the second-highest number in the world, following the United States.<\/p>\n

After a seemingly endless plateau, with more than 1,000 deaths a day from June to August, on a seven-day rolling average, the numbers had finally been falling in the giant country of 212 million people.<\/p>\n

But after dropping to as low as 350 deaths per day early last week, the rolling average has now risen above 400 again.<\/p>\n

There is also a worrying trend in the number of hospitalizations.<\/p>\n

Sao Paulo, the state hit hardest by the virus, registered an 18-percent increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations last week.<\/p>\n

That led the state government to put the brakes on its gradual exit from partial lockdown.<\/p>\n

However, eight months after the pandemic reached the country, Brazilians are showing signs of fatigue with social<\/a> distancing measures.<\/p>\n

In the country’s largest cities, shops, schools, cinemas and gyms have reopened, and beaches, bars and restaurants are regularly packed with crowds.<\/p>\n

But experts warn the country’s virus ordeal is probably far from over.<\/p>\n

‘Worrying level’<\/b><\/p>\n

“For the past three months, we’d been seeing a steady level of 50, 55 COVID cases” at a time, said Sidney Klajner, president of Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo.<\/p>\n

“But today I think we have 90 patients with COVID or suspected COVID,” he told AFP.<\/p>\n

“Most of them are younger patients who we understand are taking less precautions.”<\/p>\n

Last weekend, an unauthorized party on Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro drew more than 2,000 revelers, most without face masks.<\/p>\n

That was despite the fact that intensive care units in the city’s public hospitals had just hit the dangerous threshold of 95-percent occupancy.<\/p>\n

“We may already be in a second wave,” said Domingos Alves, head of the Health Intelligence Lab at the University of Sao Paulo.<\/p>\n

He said he was especially worried by the “R value,” the number of people an infected person transmits the virus to on average.<\/p>\n

When the number is higher than one, experts consider it worrying.<\/p>\n

“In early October, the national rate was 0.97, with just four (of Brazil’s 27) states above one. But a month later, 14 states were above one, and the national average, too,” he told AFP.<\/p>\n

“We’re at a worrying level, especially given that testing has decreased and the official figures are under-estimates.”<\/p>\n

He said more political leadership was needed on the pandemic.<\/p>\n

“Brazil urgently needs to put in place mass testing to try to get the second wave under control, before it gets submerged like the United States and Europe.”<\/p>\n

Bolsonaro denounces ‘gossip’<\/b><\/p>\n

If there is a second wave, it will probably hit Brazil unequally, said Julio Croda, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Mato Grosso do Sul.<\/p>\n

Immunity among those who have already had the virus may partially protect some hard-hit areas, he said.<\/p>\n

“But even if the second wave is smaller in terms of the number of cases, it can still cause a major tragedy,” because authorities have largely scrapp<\/a>ed field hospitals and other emergency measures taken at the height of the outbreak, he said.<\/p>\n

“Even a less intense second wave could be deadlier than the first, because of that demobilization,” he said.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian government, which has struggled to respond effectively to the pandemic, does not look likely to do better if there is a second round.<\/p>\n

President Jair Bolsonaro, who has downplayed the pandemic since the outset, last week dismissed talk of a second wave as “gossip.”<\/p>\n

“And if it comes, we’ll just have to face it, because otherwise our economy will really collapse,” said the far-right leader, who argues the economic impact of lockdown measures is worse than the virus itself.<\/p>\n

The comment came several days after he urged Brazilians to “stop being a country of fags” and “face up to (the virus) and fight.”\n <\/p>\n\n

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Follow the latest news<\/a> on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2020 AFP<\/p>\n

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\n Hard-hit Brazil threatened by second wave of virus (2020, November 18)
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