Ministry Declares Nationwide Community Transmission of Novel Coronavirus

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Ministry of Health declared that the whole national territory is under community transmission status of the Sars-Cov-2 coronavirus, responsible for the Covid-19 disease pandemic. The status was published in an ordinance on Friday evening, March 20th.

Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta had already announced in the afternoon that the measure would be taken soon to simplify government actions. The Minister also pointed out that the number of cases of the disease is expected to skyrocket in April and that the health system is likely to collapse.

Community or sustained transmission occurs when tracing the source of infection is impossible, suggesting that the virus is spreading among people who have not traveled or had contact with those who have been abroad.

Until Thursday’s report, community transmission was established in the states of São Paulo and Pernambuco. It also occurs in isolation in three capital cities: Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre (in addition to the capitals of SP and PE, already included above).

The declaration of community transmission status does not imply that all states and cities share this type of transmission. On Friday’s balance, there were still two states (Roraima and Maranhão) that have not yet had any confirmed cases.

“Brazil will need to understand that we are a whole. A whole. A continent and that we all have sustained transmission.(…) This state division is merely an administrative division” said Luiz Mandetta.

Certificate and isolation

The ordinance also officialized recommendations that the Ministry had outlined on Thursday. The “home isolation” of those who have “respiratory symptoms” and of those who live with these individuals should be no more than 14 days”.

It further determines that the certificate issued by the medical professional who orders the isolation measure will be extended to those living at the same address.

The text also includes an advice to the elderly:
“People over 60 (sixty) years of age must comply with the social distancing, restricting their displacement to strictly required activities, avoiding the use of collective transport, trips and sporting, artistic, cultural, scientific, commercial and religious events and others with a close concentration of people” – Ordinance No. 454.

Cases throughout Brazil

Confirmed cases of Covid-19, an infectious disease caused by the Sars-Cov-2 coronavirus, increased by 45 percent between Thursday, March 19th and Friday 20th, according to data from the Ministry of Health. The most recent federal report shows that Brazil counts 904 cases and 11 deaths. The data considers information provided by the state secretariats until 4 PM.

On Thursday, the Ministry totaled 621 cases and six deaths. The total of deaths increased by over 80 percent between the two reports. For the second successive day, the ministry failed to disclose the total of suspected cases, as it had been doing since the start of the monitoring of cases. The platform displaying the data has been offline since Thursday. The Ministry of Health also failed to disclose the total number of hospitalized patients.