São Paulo City Hall Expects Worsening of Covid-19 Cases Next Week

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The São Paulo City Hall expects an increase in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations for next week, which should put even greater pressure on the capital’s healthcare system.

According to municipal Health Secretary Edson Aparecido, the adverse effects of gatherings and crowds at end-of-year festivities should reach their peak in the next few days. “According to our experts, a considerable surge in cases is expected. It is inevitable”, he lamented.

On Tuesday, January 19th, the capital registered a 65% ICU bed occupancy for Covid-19 in municipal hospitals or hospitals contracted by the City, according to the Health Secretariat’s daily report. Of the 1,222 patients hospitalized for the disease, 637 were in intensive care, which represents 52.1% of the total.

According to Aparecido, the city is able to attend the expected surge in demand, because it increased the number of ICU and ward beds in October, when the number of cases had decreased.

“Today [Tuesday] we only have two hospitals with full capacity, Santa Casa de Santo Amaro and Cruz Azul, which are contracted units, so we have to use what is being paid. Brasilândia, for instance, is at 74% capacity,” he said.

Asked if this surge of cases could lead the city to regress in the São Paulo Plan classification, moving to the orange phase (the second-most restrictive), Aparecido stated that the capital is doing its part, but it is suffering the impact of the lack of structures in other cities.

“About 23% of patients hospitalized in the capital do not live here. So we are under great pressure with patients from the metropolitan region and the interior of the state. We are able to attend everyone, but we know that many cities have disabled ICU beds, as well as part of the private hospital network. Therefore, we are forced to deal with this pressure on our own network,” he says.

The Secretary says he is in favor of implementing measures to reduce the spread of the disease, but considers that the restrictions in place need to be adopted by the population, otherwise “nothing will happen”.

The Coronavirus Contingency Center is expected to reclassify the state’s regions this Friday according to the new criteria of the São Paulo Plan.

Currently, six of the state’s regions, including the capital, are in the yellow phase. Another ten areas are in the orange and the Marilia region is in the red phase, where only essential services are allowed to operate.