Governor restricts night crowds in São Paulo after record Covid-19 hospitalizations

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL –  After São Paulo State set a record for covid-19 hospitalizations, governor João Doria (PSDB) on Wednesday announced restrictions on movement between 11 PM and 5 AM in all São Paulo municipalities starting next Friday, February 26th.

The measure, effective between February 26th and March 14th, is a further attempt to “reduce crowds and gatherings that may occur mainly at night,” explained Paulo Menezes, coordinator of the Covid-19 Contingency Center, at a press conference alongside the governor. Illegal gatherings, already banned, are the main target of the measure, which should not punish people on the streets during the restricted hours, according to Doria, who refrained from using the term “curfew”.

Since the start of the year, the São Paulo government has been trying to tighten restrictions on circulation, but has repeatedly yielded to pressure from the business sector. In ten days, 660 people were admitted to Intensive Care Units in the state. This week alone there was a 9.1% increase over last week.

If the rates continue to rise at the current pace, ICU beds are expected to be exhausted in 22 days, said the São Paulo state government. Currently, the social isolation rate stands at 40% in the state and at 38% in the capital, according to the government.

Crowds had already been banned by the São Paulo Plan, the policy implemented by the state government during the pandemic to establish restriction levels in different regions. The main changes now concern enforcement. Doria stressed that the goal is not to fine those who are working at night, but rather to prevent “inappropriate and untimely” night gatherings.

He said that individuals attending parties will not be fined, but given a warning. The governor explained that anyone hosting parties will be fined.

According to Secretary of Economic Development Patricia Ellen, the stepping-up of restrictions will also not entail the closing of public transportation or essential services, such as markets and pharmacies, nor fines for those circulating for work-related reasons. “We will not penalize those who are working or complying with protocols,” she assured.

Ellen further explained that so far fines have been directed at anyone failing to wear a mask. However, they will now be enforced on anyone found in violation of the São Paulo Plan as a whole. “Inspection will be more focused on checking crowds and gatherings of people, not only in commercial establishments, but in all regions.”

The new hardening of measures had been expected at least since Monday, when the state reached the mark of 6,410 people hospitalized in public and private ICUs with Covid-19, a record since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. On Wednesday, the number of inpatients stood at 6,657, another record. The government has also recorded 100 new daily hospitalizations over the past three days.

The capital city of São Paulo has already exceeded the 70% ICU bed occupancy rate. According to Menezes, the surge in hospitalizations may be linked both to the crowds recorded during Carnaval and to the spread of new coronavirus variants.

The government also announced a state and municipal health surveillance task force, the State Police, and the PROCON (consumer protection agency) to monitor compliance with the measures. Fines will be imposed in case of non-compliance with the São Paulo Plan, stressed Menezes during the press conference.

Doria highlighted the need for other municipalities to cooperate – in the interior of the state, city halls have been reluctant to implement the state’s restrictive measures. “The cooperation of municipalities and their health surveillance agencies is critical for compliance with these guidelines and this restriction period,” explained the governor.

The governor also made an appeal to younger people. “I understand their need and urge to get together, to party. But it is these young people who are ultimately becoming infected. By becoming infected, they also infect their parents, their grandparents, their relatives,” emphasized the governor.

“Not only the state of São Paulo, but other states, other municipalities, and other countries are adopting restrictive measures to protect lives, not to hurt people,” he continued.

Doria also said that most establishments have been trying to comply with the government’s guidelines, but made another appeal for “the population to report illegal parties, irregular gatherings, so that the health authorities and the state police may intervene.”

Concern in the interior

Last Monday, the municipality of Araraquara decreed a strict lockdown in the city after the bed occupancy rate reached almost 100%. On the same day, São Bernardo do Campo also moved ahead of the São Paulo state government and decreed a curfew in the city.

“How is it possible to understand that Araraquara and Jaú are under a lockdown while Bauru, 55 km away from the latter, is rallying for the right to crowd?,” asked on Monday a group of experts, most of them advisors to the São Paulo government, in a Folha de S. Paulo newspaper article.

In the article, they alerted to the severity of the moment. “Let’s be clear: at no time has Covid-19 ravaged Brazil as it is doing now. Hospitalizations and deaths are increasing. Viral variants are spreading, probably more transmissible and possibly causing more serious diseases. What is worse, it is possible that these variants will escape the immunity conferred by vaccines,” they wrote.

“We will not be able to vaccinate in time. It is possible that the virus will preempt the vaccine with its escape mutations. The transmission of the coronavirus creates opportunities for variants to emerge. It is therefore urgent to interrupt it.”

The last hospitalization record was set in July last year, the peak of the first wave of the pandemic, when 6,257 patients were hospitalized with covid-19.

The number of new hospitalizations began to rise rapidly from late last year, with the second wave of the disease. This second stage of the pandemic hit the interior of the state the hardest, which saw new covid-19 cases and deaths skyrocket in January, and ICU and ward bed occupancy rates surge – in some major hospitals, they have reached 100%.

“For most of the past 15 days we have registered 100% ICU bed occupancy for Covid-19 in our hospital. If nothing is done and transmission continues as it is, we will collapse in two weeks,” Professor Carlos Magno alerted in late January, an epidemiologist at the Unesp School of Medicine in Botucatu and one of the experts advising Doria.

Experts predict that a collapse in the interior – particularly in medium-sized hospitals that serve as a buffer in the regions of Marília, São José do Rio Preto, Ribeirão Preto or Franca – will consequently lead to an even greater demand for beds in the São Paulo capital and pressure on its system, which could result in another collapse.

Source: El Pais