Brazil’s daily death average over 1,000 for 31 days; vaccine reaches 2.7% of the population

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The media outlet consortium reporting on the Brazilian Covid-19 pandemic has released a new survey of the coronavirus pandemic situation in Brazil based on data from state health secretariats, updated at 8 PM on Saturday, February 20th.

The country recorded 1,051 covid-19 deaths in 24 hours, reaching a total of 246,006 deaths since the start of the pandemic. This brings the rolling average of deaths in Brazil over the past 7 days to 1,051. This average of over 1,000 deaths has now been recorded for 31 days. There was a 5% variation compared to the average of 14 days ago, pointing to a trend of stability in deaths by the disease.

In terms of confirmed cases, 10,138,265 Brazilians have been or are infected with the novel coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, with 56,572 of these confirmed on Saturday. The rolling average over the last 7 days stood at 46,716 new daily diagnoses. This represents a 2% variation from the cases recorded in two weeks, pointing to a trend of stability in diagnoses too.

Eleven states are reporting an increase in deaths: RS, SC, GO, AC, PA, RO, RR, BA, PB, PE, and RN.

A balance of vaccination against covid-19 on Saturday shows that 5,811,528 people have already been administered the first dose of the covid-19 vaccine, according to data released by 8 PM. The figure represents 2.74% of the Brazilian population.

The second dose has already been administered to 1,115,832 people (0.53% of the country’s population) in all states and in the Federal District.

In total, 6,927,360 doses have been administered nationwide.

The Ministry of Health dispensed with bidding to purchase the Indian Covaxin and Russian Sputnik V vaccines. The goal is to expedite the process of acquiring these immunizers. The purchase still hinges on the Brazilian National Health Regulatory Agency’s emergency use authorization.

In total, 10 million doses of the Sputnik V and 20 million doses of the Covaxin will be made available to the population. Deliveries should start in March and will follow the following schedule: Sputnik V March: 400,000, April: 2 million, May: 7.6 million, Total: 10 million doses; Covaxin March: 8 million, April: 8 million, May: 4 million, Total: 20 million doses. The expected investment amounts to R$639.6 million for the Russian vaccine and R$1.614 billion for the Indian vaccine.

The Rio de Janeiro State Health Secretariat is investigating 13 cases of potential infection with the new covid-19 variants from Manaus and the United Kingdom. These are patients with signs and symptoms of Covid-19 who have a history of travel or contact with people from other states and/or countries with the new variants in circulation.

On Friday, health authorities found that a group that met in January in Nova Friburgo may have been infected with one of the new strains. One of the patients, who has already been confirmed to be infected with one of the new strains, attended a family meeting on January 17th in Nova Friburgo, with at least eight other people, days before he showed symptoms.

The State Health Surveillance teams found that the owner of the house where the meeting took place was diagnosed with covid-19 one day after the meeting.

Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes said on Saturday, February 20th, that he would wait for a new shipment of Covid-19 vaccines before announcing the new vaccination schedule for the first dose. Immunization in the city had to be suspended on Wednesday, February 17th, when seniors aged 82 would have been immunized with the first dose.

“The information we have is that on Tuesday, February 23rd, new vaccines will arrive. When these vaccines arrive, regularizing the flow, we will announce the new dates,” said Paes. “If the flow normalizes, I still think it’s possible that we could reach the end of March, mid-April, with all people over 60 immunized in the city of Rio – which would be incredible.”

Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello on Friday, February 19th, assured a National Front of Mayors’ (FNP) committee that the government will distribute over 4.7 million doses of the covid-19 vaccine by early March.

The Institute of Tropical Medicine of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) confirmed the circulation of new coronavirus variants in the state. According to the institute, the study results were reported to the health authorities, so that they could take the appropriate measures.

The research confirming the circulation was conducted through genetic sequencing and is analyzing 91 coronavirus samples from Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba. The samples from Natal date from January and February 2021, and were able to detect the P1 strain, which was initially discovered in Manaus (AM), as well as the P2 strain, found in Rio de Janeiro and which is spreading across Brazil.