BRAZIL’S WORST HEALTH CRISIS

According to Fiocruz, Brazil is experiencing a historic health crisis as intensive care units run out of capacity, deaths and new cases reach record levels and local politicians implement new restrictions to hold the virus spread at bay. While vaccines seem to be the solution to prevent more damage, the slow pace of the vaccination has led politicians to propose changes in the campaign. This scenario has also pushed central leaders to modify their strategy and present new solutions to the crisis, while pressured by their own allies in Congress as outlined in Top Stories.

THE CRISIS: HOSPITALS ON THE EDGE THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY

This March a wave of new cases, deaths and hospitalizations hit the country, increasing the demand for hospital beds and oxygen. Data released by the Health Ministry revealed consecutive records of deaths and new cases almost in every state. On March 31^st, Brazil registered 3.869 deaths of patients with Covid during a 24-hour period, another record. Seven days before, the country had hit the milestone of 300.000 dead.

With increasing influx of patients to hospitals across the country, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) suggested that all states and cities under “critical alert should restrict all non-essential activities for 14 days”. The classification is given to states due to high Covid-19 ICU bed occupancy rates. When this recommendation was published, out of 26 states, only Amazonas and Roraima were not under “critical alert”. Most of the states had ICU occupancy rates around 90% or higher.

In order to respond to the lack of hospital beds, especially ICUs, state and city governments started reactivating field hospitals, which had been used during the first wave. Already on March 4th, the Bahia government reopened the field hospital in Salvador. Four days later, São Paulo state government announced 11 new units.

However, the lack of beds is not the only issue looming on the horizon, hospitals suffered with the threat of supplies shortage. Stocks of oxygen cylinders and medical kits used for intubation became quite low, both essential to severe cases.

THE AUTHORITIES’ RESPONSE

Fearing a worse scenario, governors and mayors started to respond to the crisis in the health system. Many declared lockdowns, extended holidays or implemented stricter social isolation rules, despite its impacts on an already weakened economy.

Federal District Governor Ibaneis Rocha decreed a lockdown on February 28th and extended it on March 22nd until the 29th. These measures were also adopted by Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul. Rio de Janeiro state government announced an extended holiday from March 26th until April 4th. São Paulo City Hall did the same and anticipated some holidays to the period from March 26th to April 1st.

VACCINES TO SAVE THE ECONOMY

While the country still struggles to treat all patients with Covid-19 and cities close once more to stop the virus spread, authorities propose measures to accelerate vaccination. This could give a glimpse of hope for the economy, allowing some to return to work.

On March 22nd, Economy Minister Paulo Guedes suggested a change in the campaign to speed up the vaccination of the 40 million Brazilians that will receive the new round of the emergency aid in April. For him, they could even return to work while being paid. This could avoid an even bigger governmental debt and better economic recovery.

However, Brazil is still behind in terms of doses administered to the population and reaching the 40 million in a short term seems a hard task. On March 31st, only 7,02% of the Brazilian population had been vaccinated (1st dose), while the US and Chile, for example, had already administered vaccines to 29,18% and 35,55% of their citizens respectively.

A POSSIBLE CHANGE IN STRATEGY AND A WARNING

The worsening of the health crisis created a lot of political pressure for changes, in particular from allies of the government, the political group called the “Centrão”. On March 15th, President Jair Bolsonaro announced the removal of General Eduardo Pazuello from the head of the Health Ministry. He was replaced by Doctor Marcelo Queiroga – Bolsonaro’s 4th health minister –, which did not please the “Centrão”, since he was seen as a personal choice of President.

On March 24th, another change was revealed. President Jair Bolsonaro announced the creation of a committee in partnership with Congress to define measures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

Apparently, the measures announced by the President did not seem to play well with members of congress and, on the same day, Federal Chamber President Arthur Lira made an official announcement. Without quoting names, Lira said that the “political remedies” in Congress against the “spiral of errors” in combating the pandemic are “known”, “bitter” and somewhat “fatal”. He did not to mention an eventual impeachment process against the President, but it could be understood as such, since the opening of this procedure depends on Lira’s decision. In face of this, the President’s next steps and the development of the crisis could have a great impact on the future political scenario.

This March a wave of new cases, deaths and hospitalizations hit the country, increasing the demand for hospital beds and oxygen. Data released by the Health Ministry revealed consecutive records of deaths and new cases almost in every state. On March 31st, Brazil registered 3.869 deaths of patients with Covid during a 24-hour period, another record. Seven days before, the country had hit the milestone of 300.000 dead.