BRASÍLIA / PORTO ALEGRE (Reuters) – Hospitals in major cities in Brazil are reaching maximum capacity, health officials warned, as the country recorded the highest number of COVID-19 deaths last week, causing stricter restrictions on Thursday in its most populous state.
Intensive care units for the treatment of patients with COVID-19 have reached critical occupancy levels above 90% in 15 of the 27 capitals, according to the biomedical center Fiocruz.
In Porto Alegre, in the south of Brazil, the main reference hospital of COVID-19 stopped admitting new cases because all the ICU beds were occupied. A Reuters photographer saw patients on respirators filling the emergency rooms.
“This is a warning. We have reached maximum capacity and people need to know how the situation is, ”said Claudio Oliveira, director of Hospital da Conceição. It was the first time the hospital had refused patients since the H1N1 epidemic in 2009.
Oliveira told reporters that the hospital closed its doors to prevent the collapse of COVID patient care.
The death toll from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours has exceeded 2,000 for the second time, the Ministry of Health said on Thursday, with 2,233 dead and 75,412 new infections.
With more than 272,000 deaths, the number of pandemic deaths in Brazil last year is second only to the United States. But last week, Brazil averaged more than 1,600 deaths a day, up from about 1,400 in the United States, where the outbreak has slowed.
While President Jair Bolsonaro protests against the blockades and urges Brazilians to leave their homes, governors and mayors struggle to enforce restrictions, often vainly pleading with a population accustomed to the rising tide of the epidemic.
The far-right president attacked the governors for the blockades again on Thursday, including the decision by the state of São Paulo to ban football matches. He said they were increasing poverty with a medicine worse than the virus.
“How long can we endure this irresponsible blockade? You shut everything down and destroy millions of jobs. Lockdown is not a cure, ”Bolsonaro said on video to a business group with Economy Minister Paulo Guedes at his side.
The two most populous cities in Brazil, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, on Thursday took measures to tighten the measures while their hospitals struggled with a second wave of the virus, driven by a more contagious variant that emerged in the Amazon region.
While Europe and the United States increase vaccinations and reduce the number of cases, the federal government of Brazil is starting slowly, with only 2% of the 210 million Brazilians fully vaccinated so far.
In Brasilia, the capital of the country, which is under the curfew at night, the ICUs of public hospitals are 97% full and private ones, 99%, forcing the city to re-install field hospitals, as it had done during the peak of cases last year.
On Thursday, the governor of São Paulo, João Doria, announced a “new stage” of restrictions to impose social distance, arguing that it is now the only weapon against the spread of the virus.
Among them are the curfew from 8 pm to 5 am, the suspension of religious services and sporting events, including football games, and the ban on the use of beaches and parks.
“This is a difficult and unpopular decision. No governor wants to stop economic activities in his state, ”said Doria at a news conference.
The state of São Paulo, where around 44 million people live, currently allows only essential stores, such as supermarkets and pharmacies, to receive consumers.
The Health Secretary of São Paulo said that hospitals in more than half of the state’s municipalities are full and half of the patients are under 50 years old.
Last year, the most serious cases were concentrated in elderly Brazilians.
Additional reporting by Eduardo Simões in São Paulo and Rodrigo Viga Gaier in Rio de Janeiro; Jamie McGeever and Anthony Boadle writing; Editing by Brad Haynes, Bill Berkrot, Jonathan Oatis and Daniel Wallis