SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Police broke up an illegal party with nearly 600 people in a windowless nightclub in Sao Paulo in the early hours of Saturday, highlighting the violation of the social distance rules that triggered the country’s outbreak in this area. moment to the deadliest in the world.
COVID-19 killed 12,000 Brazilians in the past week, more than any other country. With a total of 275,000 lives lost, the death toll in Brazil lags behind only in the United States, where the epidemic is slowing dramatically.
Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria is one of the state and municipal authorities lifting the restrictions as the Brazil outbreak soars to record levels fueled by more contagious local variants. However, many Brazilians still defy the measures, encouraged by President Jair Bolsonaro, who speaks out against lockdowns as job cuts and unnecessary.
Officials in Sao Paulo have taken increasingly dramatic steps to show that they mean, including amplified ‘blitzes’ to suppress the city’s famous nightlife.
With axes and assault rifles, police officers broke into the door of the nightclub in the Capao Redondo neighborhood and pierced the darkness with lights on their guns. Hundreds of young revelers, few of whom were masked, flinched on the dance floor as police silenced the music and arrested the organizers.
“I could never imagine hundreds and hundreds of people in a place without a single window, with all doors closed,” said Eduardo Brotero, the police officer who led the operation.
Jefferson dos Santos, one of the revelers who was forced to leave the party, expressed his disagreement with the operation: “We pay taxes and we know the risks, we can get sick or infect our family. But we have to do something in life. “
Consumer protection agency Procon-SP said it had fined some 100 companies for violating the latest restrictions. Carlos Cesar Marera, enforcement director at Procon-SP said the city’s clandestine parties are being organized over the Internet.
“These young people, usually 18 to 23 years old, gather in these parties without social distancing at a time when thousands of people are dying.”
Reporting by Leonardo Benassato in Sao Paulo; Written by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Brad Haynes and Alistair Bell