RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Data from the Ministry of Health released on Tuesday, April 14th, show that the total number of people who have recovered from coronavirus infection exceeds the number of patients hospitalized or waiting for their test results.
There are today 9,704 Covid-19 patients officially recorded by the government, while the total of recovered patients reaches 14,026, representing 55 percent of those who tested positive. However, it should be noted that there is a large level of underreporting, i.e. cases of unknown infections in the official statistics, which would considerably increase the number of patients.
In São Paulo, for instance, where there are almost 9,000 people infected, the state government estimates that this number could in fact now reach 100,000 inhabitants.
Of the 25,262 people infected by Covid-19 throughout the country to date, 1,532 have died, according to figures updated on Tuesday. The Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Health, João Gabbardo dos Reis, stated that in order to monitor the situation of hospital beds, the portfolio now requires public and private hospitals to routinely submit updated figures on ICU bed occupancy, including those which are not reserved for patients with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
The data are required for the Ministry to determine which regions of the country should issue warnings regarding the risk of a collapse in the healthcare network.
“We now have more accurate information about the availability of beds and at which hospitals we will need to issue a warning that we are already reaching the healthcare threshold. This is very important,” said the secretary.
The head of the Ministry, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, stressed that the measures to contain the spread of the virus will take 14 days to be effective. Therefore, he urged the population not to think that “everything is closed”. “Therefore, it is important to be very attentive because sometimes people may think that everything is closed,” Mandetta said. On Sunday, in a meeting with religious leaders, President Jair Bolsonaro said that “this virus issue is starting to go away”.
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