PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil – Brazil is in the middle of a battle against the new variant of the Covid-19 from the Amazon, which threatens to send shock waves all over the world.
Home to less than 3% of the world population, Brazil is currently responsible for almost a third of Covid-19’s global daily deaths, driven by the new variant. More than 300,000 died and daily deaths now reach 3,000, a figure suffered only by the much more populous United States
“We are in the trenches here, fighting a war,” said Andréia Cruz, 42, an emergency room nurse in the city of Porto Alegre, in southern Brazil. In the last three weeks alone, the state of Rio Grande do Sul has seen nearly 5,000 people die from Covid-19, more than in the last three months of last year.
The spread of the virus in Brazil threatens to transform this country of 213 million inhabitants into a global danger to public health. The so-called P.1 strain, present in more than 20 countries and identified in New York last week, is up to 2.2 times more contagious and 61% more capable of reinfecting people than previous versions of the coronavirus, according to one recent study.
P.1 is now responsible for the majority of new infections in Brazil, with many doctors here saying that they are seeing more young and healthy patients becoming ill. About 30% of people who die from Covid-19 are now under 60, compared to an average of about 26% during the previous peak in Brazil between June and August, according to official data analyzed by The Wall Street Journal.