São Paulo – The collapse of the health system in the Brazilian economic metropolis of São Paulo has increasingly dramatic consequences in view of the increasing number of corona cases. On Thursday, the case of an infected man who died while waiting for an ICU bed to become vacant made headlines. “Unfortunately, in the east of the city we had the case for the first time that a person died without being cared for,” said São Paulo’s mayor Bruno Covas on Brazilian television.
The news portal G1 reported, citing the city’s health secretary, that it was a 22-year-old who fell ill with Covid-19 and was taken to an initial medical admission station in serious condition. The city administration requested an intensive care bed via the central distribution point. By the time this became available, the man had already died.
Brazil: Around 285,000 corona deaths
Brazil, which only started vaccinations in January, is one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic. Around 11,700,000 people have been shown to have been infected with the coronavirus, and around 285,000 have died in connection with Covid-19. Only in the US are the numbers even higher. Most recently, the largest country in Latin America registered a new daily high for new infections and deaths. Brazil has 210 million inhabitants and is 24 times the size of Germany in terms of area.
According to the Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz) research organization, Brazil is experiencing the “greatest health and hospital collapse in history”. Accordingly, the utilization of public intensive care beds for Covid 19 patients in 24 of 26 states and the capital district of Brasília is 80 percent or more. The governor of the state of São Paulo announced the opening of around a dozen mobile hospitals. Mayor Covas refused a lockdown.
