The mayor of Brazil’s largest city, São Paulo, has said its health system could collapse as demand grows for emergency beds to deal with coronavirus cases.
Bruno Covas said the city’s public hospitals had reached 90% capacity and could run out of space in two weeks.
He accused those who flouted lockdown rules of playing “Russian roulette” with people’s lives.
São Paulo is one of the country’s worst-hit regions, with almost 3,000 deaths so far.
On Saturday, Brazil overtook Spain and Italy to become the nation with the fourth largest number of infections.
The health ministry reported 7,938 new cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total above 241,000. Only the US, Russia and the UK have higher numbers.
The death toll in the Latin American nation over 24 hours was 485, meaning that the total number of deaths is 16,118 – the world’s fifth-highest figure.
Health experts in Brazil have warned that the real number of confirmed infections in the country may be far higher than the official records, due to a lack of testing.
Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has been strongly criticised both at home and abroad for his handling of the country’s escalating coronavirus crisis.
He defied global health advice on social distancing on Sunday when he posed for photographs with supporters and children in the capital, Brasília.
What did São Paulo’s mayor say?
Mr Covas said he was now in crisis talks with the state governor over introducing a strict lockdown to try to slow the contagion before hospitals were overwhelmed.
The governor of São Paulo state controls the police, and his support will be essential if a lockdown is to succeed.
Mr Covas called on the population to stay at home to stem the spread of the virus saying São Paulo needed to “slow down even more” to reduce contagion.
“It is hard to believe that some prefer the population to be subjected to Russian roulette. Indifference in the face of death is unseemly,” he said.
São Paulo has a population of about 12 million, and official figures show that the majority of residents have been flouting social distancing rules.
Tougher lockdown expected
A quarantine in São Paulo state was imposed nearly two months ago – businesses, schools and public spaces were closed and people were asked to stay at home.
But there are no costly punishments for those who flout the rules – plenty of Paulistanos (residents of São Paulo city) are still choosing to drive to the beach for the weekend and it’s getting locals very cross.
A recent rule brought in that made the wearing of masks mandatory is often ignored – at the weekend, I saw plenty of people going for their Sunday cycle or run either with no mask or wearing one around their neck. It doesn’t feel like the virus is being taken seriously.
At the same time, people are seeing Europe start to open up and wonder when it’s going to happen here. But as the mayor said at the weekend, the city has to stop before it can re-open. Many are expecting a tougher lockdown in the weeks ahead.
How is President Bolsonaro handling the crisis?
Mr Bolsonaro, who is popular in São Paulo, continues to oppose lockdown measures, arguing that social distancing will only wreck the economy.
In March he made a speech calling on mayors and governors to roll back coronavirus restrictions: “Our lives have to go on. Jobs must be kept. We must get back to normal.”
The president described the closures of businesses and schools, together with restrictions on public transport, as “scorched-earth” policies.
Despite the rapidly rising infection rate, Mr Bolsonaro argued that most people – including himself – had nothing to fear from the virus.
“With my history as an athlete, if I were infected with the virus I would have no reason to worry. I would feel nothing, or it would be at most just a little flu,” he said.
In April, Mr Bolsonaro joined protesters demanding that lockdown restrictions be lifted. He says the restrictions are damaging the economy, bringing unemployment and hunger.
Last week, Brazilian Health Minister Nelson Teich resigned after less than a month in the job. Mr Teich stepped down after he had publicly criticised a decree by Mr Bolsonaro allowing gyms and beauty parlours to reopen. Mr Teich’s predecessor was sacked after disagreeing with Mr Bolsonaro.
What about health experts’ reaction?
Health experts in Brazil have warned that the real number of confirmed infections in the country may be far higher than the official records, due to a lack of testing.
“Brazil is only testing people who end up in the hospital,” Domingo Alves from the University of São Paulo Medical School told AFP news agency last week.
“It’s hard to know what’s really happening based on the available data. We don’t have a real policy to manage the outbreak,” he said.
Mr Alves is one of the authors of a study that estimated the real number of infections was 15 times higher than the official figure.
What’s the latest in the wider region?
Brazil, by far the largest country in Latin America, has for several weeks been at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak.
Latin America and the Caribbean have recorded more than 500,000 infections, with Brazil accounting for nearly 50% of the cases.
Mexico has recently seen a spike in new infections, while Ecuador saw its health system collapse in April.
The sharp rise in cases in Latin America has led the World Health Organization (WHO) to say the Americas are currently at the centre of the pandemic.
In March, the WHO had labelled Europe the “epicentre of the pandemic” but the region is now slowly beginning to ease restrictions brought in to slow the spread of the virus.
Source: BBC