Fiocruz detects improved trend in Brazil’s ICU bed occupancy for Covid-19 cases

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) found an improvement in the trend of intensive care bed occupancy by adults suffering from Covid-19 in the country’s National Health System (SUS).

The improvement found by the foundation’s researchers was published in the latest issue of Fiocruz’s Covid-19 Observatory Bulletin, an information bulletin on the evolution of the disease in Brazil covering the period June 20-26.

The Foundation also confirmed a downward trend in deaths from the disease, with a lower lethality rate from Covid-19, currently at 2.4% (proportion of cases that resulted in death).

In March of this year, that rate was 4.2%. But despite the good news, the facility’s researchers stress, it does not represent control of the pandemic in Brazil, which still has high levels of disease transmission.

According to Fiocruz, in presenting the improvement in ICU bed occupancy during the bulletin period, the foundation reported that it found only three states with bed occupancy rates of 90% or more: Tocantins, Paraná, and Santa Catarina.

On the other hand, 15 states are in the medium alert level, with intensive care bed occupancy rates between 60% and 80% for Covid-19 cases. This group includes Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo.

Also outside the alert zone are Rondônia, Acre, Amapá, and Paraíba, with an occupancy of intensive care beds of less than 60%, Fiocruz reported.