RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Brazil’s hospitals falter as a highly contagious variant of coronavirus tears across the country, the president pushes for unproven treatments and the only attempt to make a national plan to curb COVID-19 is just failed.
For the past week, Brazilian governors tried to do something President Jair Bolsonaro stubbornly rejects: put together a proposal for states to contain the deadliest COVID-19 outbreak yet. The effort was expected to include a curfew, a ban on busy events, and restrictions on the hours that non-essential services can operate.
The final product, presented Wednesday, was a one-page document with general support for limiting activities, but without any specific measures. Six governors, apparently still wary of thwarting Bolsonaro, declined to apply.
Piaui State Gov. Wellington Dias told The Associated Press that unless pressure on hospitals is eased, a growing number of patients will have to endure the disease without a hospital bed or any hope of treatment in an intensive care unit.
“We have reached the limit throughout Brazil; rare are the exceptions, ”said Dias, who heads the governors’ forum. “The chance of dying without help is real.”
Those deaths have already begun. In Brazil’s richest state, Sao Paulo, at least 30 patients died while waiting for ICU beds this month, according to a figure published Wednesday by news site G1. In the southern state of Santa Catarina, 419 people are waiting for transfer to ICU beds. In neighboring Rio Grande do Sul, the ICU capacity is 106%.
Alexandre Zavascki, a doctor in Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, described a constant arrival of hospital patients who have difficulty breathing.
“I have many colleagues who sometimes stop crying. This is not a drug that we are used to doing on a routine basis. This is a drug adapted for a war scenario, ”said Zavascki, who oversees infectious disease treatment in a private hospital. “We see that a large part of the population refuses to see what is happening, is opposed to the facts. Those people can stand next to the hospital and want beds. But there will be none. “
The country, he added, needs “tougher measures” from local authorities.
Despite the president’s objections, last year the Supreme Court upheld the jurisdiction of cities and states to impose restrictions on activities. Still, Bolsonaro consistently condemned their steps, saying the economy must continue to churn and that isolation would cause depression. Measures were relaxed by the end of 2020, as COVID-19 cases and deaths faded, municipal election campaigns kicked off and homebound Brazilians became fatigued by quarantine.
The most recent increase is caused by the P1 variety, which Brazil’s health minister said last month is three times as transmissible as the original strain. It first became dominant in the Amazon city of Manaus, forcing the airlift of hundreds of patients to other states in January.
Brazil’s failure to stop the spread of the virus since then is increasingly seen as a concern not only for its Latin American neighbors, but also a warning to the world, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director. from the World Health Organization, in a press conference on March 5. .
“Across the country, aggressive use of public health measures, social measures, will be very, very crucial,” he said. “Without doing anything to influence transmission or suppress the virus, I don’t think we will be able to experience the downward trend in Brazil.”
Last week’s death toll with over 10,000 deaths was the highest in Brazil since the start of the pandemic, and this week’s toll is on track to get even higher after the country posted nearly 2,300 deaths on Wednesday – the total of the previous day which was also a record.
“Governors, like much of the population, are getting fed up with all this passivity,” said Margareth Dalcolmo, a leading pulmonologist at the state-run Fiocruz Institute. She added that their proposed pact is vague and will remain symbolic unless it becomes far-reaching and confronts the federal government.
Brazil’s National Council of State Secretaries for Public Health last week called for a national curfew and lockdown in regions approaching maximum hospital capacity. Bolsonaro objected again.
“I will not decide,” Bolsonaro said at an event on Monday. “And you can be sure of one thing: my army will not take to the streets to force people to stay at home.”
Restrictions can already be found just outside the presidential palace after federal district governor Ibaneis Rocha introduced curfew and partial lockdownRocha warned on Tuesday that he could take tougher action and only save pharmacies and hospitals if people continue to ignore the rules. Currently, there are 213 people in the neighborhood on the waiting list for an IC bed.
Bolsonaro told reporters Monday that the curfew is “an insult, inadmissible,” and said even the WHO believes lockdowns are inadequate because they cause disproportionate pain to the poor. While the WHO acknowledges “ pervasive negative impacts, ” she says some countries have had no choice but to take heavy-handed measures to delay the transfer, and governments should use the extra time provided to test and detect cases , patients.
Such nuance was lost with Bolsonaro. His government continues its search for silver bullet solutions that have so far only served to raise false hopes. Every idea seems to need to be considered except those of public health experts.
Bolsonaro’s government has spent millions on manufacturing and distributing malaria pills, which have shown no benefit in rigorous studies. Still, Bolsonaro approved the drugs. He has also supported treatment with two parasite-fighting drugs, neither of which have been shown to be effective. He again praised their ability to avoid hospitalization at a Wednesday event at the presidential palace.
Bolsonaro also sent a committee to Israel this week to review an unproven nasal spray that he has called “a miraculous product.” Dalcolmo from Fiocruz, whose younger sister is currently in an ICU, called the trip “really pathetic.”
Camila Romano, a researcher at the Institute of Tropical Medicine at the University of Sao Paulo, hopes that a test her lab developed to identify variants of concern, including P1, will help monitor and control their distribution. She also wants the government to take stricter measures and that citizens do their bit.
“Every day is a new surprise, a new variety, a city whose health system is collapsing,” said Romano. “We are now in the worst phase. Whether this is going to be the worst phase of all, unfortunately, we don’t know what’s next. “
___ Álvares reported from Brasilia. Associated Press video journalist Tatiana Pollastri contributed from Sao Paulo.