The coronavirus continues to overwhelm Brazil. The country recorded a new record for Covid-19 contamination in 24 hours, with 137,103 cases, according to the latest report provided on Tuesday by the Ministry of Health.
This country of 213 million inhabitants, the second most bereaved on the planet by the pandemic behind the United States, deplores a total of some 23.2 million cases and 621,517 deaths since the start of 2020. The previous record dated from the June 23, when 115,228 new contaminations had been recorded in 24 hours.
End-of-year celebrations questioned
The number of cases exploded in January, due to the holiday season and the arrival of the Omicron variant, which is spreading like wildfire in the country. The average over the last seven days was Tuesday evening at 83,204 contaminations. By comparison, the rolling average of daily cases was just 8,000 at the end of last year. Across the country, Brazilians sometimes have to wait hours in long lines to get tested by labs or pharmacies. The results can in some cases take four days to arrive.
“The peak should be reached in February and the situation should stabilize again,” explained epidemiologist Ethel Maciel, from the Federal University of Espirito Santo (Ufes). “But we don’t yet know what the impact of the carnival will be” at the end of February, she warned. The street carnival has been canceled in most Brazilian metropolises, but uncertainty still hangs over whether or not the samba school parades will take place in Rio de Janeiro’s emblematic sambadrome.
Next two “decisive” weeks
Airlines have also been allowed to fly with fewer crew members due to the explosion of positive cases among their staff. According to Ethel Maciel, “the pressure on public health services is already very strong and the next two weeks will be decisive in observing the impact of the contaminations of the end of the year celebrations on hospitalizations”. But this specialist is not nevertheless afraid of a new murderous wave like a year ago in Brazil, “when vaccination was only in its infancy”.
Nearly 70% of Brazilians are fully immunized and vaccination of children aged five to eleven began this week, despite criticism from President Jair Bolsonaro. The head of state, who has always minimized the seriousness of the pandemic, assured that he would never have his eleven-year-old daughter Laura vaccinated, and he himself is not vaccinated.