RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The number of cases and deaths from Covid-19 has been declining for three weeks in Brazil, although it still remains at considerable levels, according to a report by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), a medical research center of reference in the country, released on Wednesday.
The data also show that, for the first time since December 2020, when the second wave began, none of the 27 Brazilian states has an occupancy rate of intensive care beds above 90% in the public health system.
Fiocruz reported that the downward trend in incidence and mortality indicators was maintained between July 4 and 10, for the third consecutive week, indicating a slowdown in the pandemic.
Fiocruz is convinced that this good development in Brazil has to do with the vaccination progress.
In this context, the number of cases and deaths has decreased in the last 21 days by about 2% per day, “but still remains at a high level”, warned the entity linked to the Ministry of Health. In fact, the case-fatality rate for the disease remained at around 3%, a percentage “considered high”.
According to the study, the lower hospital pressure in recent weeks is a reflection of “a new phase” of the pandemic in Brazil, in which the number of admissions and deaths is decreasing among at-risk groups, but at the same time transmission of the virus remains “intense” among the non-immunized.
According to official data, 40% of the Brazilian population has received the first of the two doses required by most manufacturers, but only 15% are fully vaccinated.
The scientists who participated in the report pointed out that this decrease in the pandemic indicators “may indicate a more lasting process of cooling of the pandemic in the coming months.”
According to Statista, the leading German company specializing in market and consumer data, Brazil ranks seventh in the number of deaths per million among the ten most affected nations like Peru, the Czech Republic, Colombia, Argentina, Italy, Belgium, and other European countries.
Data published by Imperial College London on Tuesday once again indicated a slowdown of the disease in the country.
According to the British institution, the transmission rate of the virus in Brazil fell to 0.88 this week, from 0.91 in the previous week, which represents the lowest rate of Covid-19 transmission in the country in 2021. When the index falls below 1, it indicates that there is a deceleration of the contagion.
The third wave has not materialized in Brazil, although it has been announced almost daily since March.
According to federal government data, Brazil reports 17,770,617 people recovered from Covid-19 and 845,538 patients still in follow-up.
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Some 4.7 million Latin Americans ceased to belong to the middle class and fell in social class in 2020 due to the overly strict anticovid measures that have stifled the economies of these countries.
But the impact would be even stronger, with a total of 20 million people losing their place in the middle class, if Brazil had not implemented a broad temporary social protection program that benefited millions in the South American nation, according to the report “The slow rise and sudden decline of the middle class in Latin America and the Caribbean”, by the World Bank.
The situation is similar with poverty. Across the region, poverty is expected to decline marginally from 22% in 2019 to 21.8% in 2020, representing 400,000 fewer poor people.
If Brazil had not implemented its mitigation measures, some 28 million people would have joined poverty in 2020, according to the report presented at a virtual conference.