Published on : 05/10/2020 – 02:23Modified : 05/10/2020 – 02:33
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Brazil has been hit hard by the coronavirus and has just entered the list of the six countries with the most deaths in the world. After reaching major cities like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the epidemic is spreading across the country. A recent study raises fears of an explosion in the number of victims which has just exceeded 10,000 dead.
With our correspondent in Sao Paulo, François Cardona
With more than 3800 dead, the economic capital Sao Paulo is the most affected city in Brazil. But a recent study, published by Fiocruz, Public Institute of Health, raises fears of a rapid spread of the coronavirus in the most remote places of Brazil. According to the Pandemic Monitoring Group, created by Fiocruz, the transmission rate in cities with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants has increased by more than 50% in the past two weeks.
After reaching urban centers, the virus is therefore circulating very quickly. These small towns do not have hospitals with intensive care beds … Fiocruz researchers have found that many patients with the virus are moving to large urban centers – where emergencies are already overwhelmed. The rate of virus transmission in large cities has increased by almost 30% in the past two weeks.
Parliament and the Supreme Court have declared three days of national mourning. President Jair Bolsonaro did not comment on the measure – he is widely criticized for opposing containment and quarantine, which was put in place by the governors of the country’s major cities most affected by the coronavirus.
Brazil, future world home?
Authorities have recorded 10,627 deaths and 155,939 confirmed cases of Covid-19 contamination, figures which, however, according to the scientific community, could be 15 or even 20 times higher in reality, with Brazil performing very few tests.
The Brazilian state by far the most affected is that of Sao Paulo (Southeast), whose governor Joao Doria announced Friday to his 46 million citizens the extension of their confinement until the end of the month. ” We are at the worst time of this pandemic “, did he declare, ” the situation is distressing ” ” We have to extend containment until May 31 ” This state, the economic engine of Brazil, alone records more than a third of deaths due to Covid-19 in the country, with 3,608 deaths, and more than 44,411 cases of contamination.
But in proportion to their population, the states of Amazonas (North) and Ceara (Northeast) live in even more catastrophic situations. The Amazon, which shelters many indigenous tribes very vulnerable to the virus, recorded 232 deaths per million inhabitants, almost three times more than the 79 deaths of the State of Sao Paulo.
At the high rate of progress of the Covid-19, the country of 210 million inhabitants could be the new global focus of the pandemic in June, which has killed at least 276,000 people worldwide since its appearance in December in China. By Saturday evening, 730 additional deaths had been recorded in 24 hours, a figure close to the daily record set the day before (751).
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