São Paulo, Brazil Brazil is bracing for what could be the deadliest month ever in the coronavirus pandemic. Vast cemeteries, where new graves are dug day and night, show the scale of the disaster. US health officials say the daily COVID-19 death toll in Brazil is expected to be close to 3,500.
Data from Johns Hopkins University shows that there are nearly 355,000 people died of COVID-19 in Brazil – the highest confirmed death toll in any country except the United States.
AMANDA PEROBELLI / REUTERS
The crisis is fueled by a dangerous variant, known as P-1, first discovered in Brazil. The species has not only spread to the US, but has become the second most common coronavirus variant in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As CBS News correspondent Manuel Bojorquez reports, one reason the world is so concerned about what is happening in Brazil is the fact that the more the virus spreads in a region, the more likely it is to mutate.
The P-1 variant is just one example of these mutations. The species is believed to be more contagious – and in the densely populated areas of Brazilian cities, social distance is practically impossible.
Bojorquez visited Paraisopolis, the second largest “favela” in the mega city of Sao Paulo. Favelas are sprawling low-income neighborhoods, often shaded by wealthy enclaves. Life was tough in Paraisopolis before the pandemic, but the virus has exacerbated poverty, and a crippled economy means food insecurity now affects more than half of Brazil’s population.
One resident, Antonio, told CBS News that if he didn’t accept free community meals, he would be concerned about getting money to eat – and made it clear that crime could be his only option.
Marcus Dos Santos works for the non-profit organization “Hands of Maria”, which delivers about 3,000 lunches every day to the people of the Sao Paulo favela.
“At this worst moment I’m trying to give the best of myself to other people,” Dos Santos told Bojorquez.
He said he is helping to take responsibility for the people of his country – something he says the Brazilian government has not done.
President Jair Bolsonaro has been criticized for this blatantly ignoring science and rejecting calls to impose lockdowns. In Sao Paulo, some of the limited restrictions actually were lifted on Mondays, with sports matches allowed to resume without crowds, along with food pick-ups from bars and restaurants.
Measures were relaxed despite one in four COVID-related deaths worldwide occurring in Brazil last week. Cemeteries are literally forced to turn soil 24 hours a day.
AMANDA PEROBELLI / REUTERS
Funerals take place one after the other. In the short time CBS News was in a sprawling cemetery, Bojorquez and his team watched seven families bid farewell to their loved ones. There in the cemetery they get their only chance to say goodbye, as funerals are not allowed due to the pandemic.
Lourival Panhozzi, head of the Brazilian funeral home association, said the coronavirus has completely overwhelmed healthcare systems. He said people who could otherwise have received treatment for conditions such as heart disease find that the hospitals are unable to receive them and there are unfortunately more fatalities attributed, albeit indirectly, to the virus.
The pain in the cemeteries is still exacerbated – by the fear that things won’t get better any time soon.