RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — For most of this month, intensive care units across Brazil were at or near capacity amid a crush of COVID-19 patients, and sedatives needed to intubate patients dwindled. The nation’s biggest cemetery had so many corpses to bury that gravediggers worked hours past sundown.

But Brazil has stepped back from the edge — at least for now — as burial and hospital services no longer face collapse. It has ceased to be the virus’ global epicenter, as its death toll ebbed and was overtaken by India’s surge. Experts warn, however, that the situation remains precarious, and caution is warranted.

The number of states with ICU capacity above 90% has slipped to 10, from 17 a month ago, according to data from the state-run Fiocruz medical research institute. And nighttime burials at Vila Formosa and three other cemeteries in Sao Paulo were suspended Thursday, after two weeks of declining deaths.

That comes as cold comfort in a country where some 2,500 people died every day over the past week, more than triple the number in the U.S. Brazil surpassed the grim milestone of 400,000 confirmed deaths on Thursday — a number considered by experts to be an undercount, in part because lack of testing meant many cases were overlooked, especially early in the pandemic. The seven-day average has retreated from more than 3,100 deaths in mid-April, but Fiocruz warned in a bulletin Wednesday that it may plateau —and at an even higher level than it did last year.

“Our goal now is to make the numbers keep going down instead of stabilizing. That’s the most crucial thing,” said Pedro Hallal, an epidemiologist and coordinator of Brazil’s largest COVID-19 testing program. “It’s good that they’re going down, but let’s not assume that this will be the last wave. There is hope that it will be the last wave, because of the vaccine, but that needs to be confirmed.”In this March 4, 2021, COVID-19 patients rest in a field hospital built inside a sports coliseum on the outskirts of Sao Paulo. (Andre Penner)

Given slow vaccine rollout, there are millions more Brazilians vulnerable to infection, Hallal added, and the threshold scientists believe is needed to stop uncontrolled spread — 70% or higher of the population with immunity through vaccination or past infection — remains distant.

Brazil’s death toll of 401,186 is the world’s second-highest, with the majority recorded in just the last four months as a more contagious variant swept the nation. Friday morning, demonstrators laid rows of body bags on the sand of Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach to represent the dead.An activist from the NGO “Rio de Paz” digs a mock grave in the sand by symbolic body bags on Copacabana beach. (AP Photo/Lucas Dumphreys)

Throughout the thick of the Southern Hemisphere’s summer, crowds gathered and people boarded public transport in droves as mayors and governors relaxed the restrictions on activity that Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro fervently opposes.

Some mayors and governors tightened such measures over the last month, helping to revert the surge of infections, Fiocruz said. However, they have begun reopening again amid the early, encouraging data.

Valter Gomes, a 33-year-old textile worker in central Sao Paulo, has noted more people riding trains and reopening shops.Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, center, arrives for a press conference in capital Brasilia. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

“Often the pandemic gets worse because a lot of people who have the opportunity to stay home don’t. They go out instead,” he said. “If everyone contributed, I don’t think there would be such a big crisis of having to stop work, having these lockdowns.”

Researchers at Imperial College London this week said Brazil’s transmission rate has reached its lowest rate in months.

But the rate remains high, said Domingos Alves, an epidemiologist tracking COVID-19 data, and he argues it’s too soon to roll back restrictions. Brazil risks repeating the errors of European countries that have seen third surges, because the country’s decline in infections isn’t yet sustained, he said.

“The situation in all Brazilian states requires adoption of more drastic measures to contain the virus,” said Alves, an adjunct professor of social medicine at the University of Sao Paulo. “The number of cases is very high and we aren’t doing anything to contain the virus.”

Brazil’s number of confirmed cases is widely believed to be an undercount, and the virus is also gaining ground among its neighbors. The ICUs in Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires, have been pushed to critical levels. Peru, Venezuela, Uruguay and Colombia have seen cases jump in recent weeks. Health experts have cited the circulation of variants, including a strain believed to have originated in Brazil’s Amazon, as a contributing factor.

“It’s no surprise that many countries in our region have tightened public health measures by extending curfews, limiting re-openings and imposing new stay-at-home orders,” said Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization. “These decisions are never easy, but based on how infections are surging, this is exactly what needs to happen.”

Such recommendations remain anathema to Bolsonaro; last weekend he called lockdown measures “absurd” and suggested he could order the army into the streets to restore order.In this March 30 photo, commuters wearing protective face masks amid the COVID-19 pandemic, ride in a crowded public bus, in Rio de Janeiro. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)A woman flashes a V sign as police break up a social gathering during an operation against illegal and clandestine gatherings in Sao Paulo. (AP Photo/Marcelo Chello)

The president has consistently downplayed the disease and dispensed false hope by touting unproven drugs, which critics say only added to the nation’s death toll. This week the Senate began an investigation into the government’s alleged failures in managing the pandemic.

The troubled response has been reflected in health minister turnover; the fourth man to occupy the post during the pandemic, Dr. Marcelo Queiroga, took over last month. He has spoken of the need to boost vaccine supply, personally consults with scientists and has so far displayed the autonomy to promote mask use and social distancing. That marks something of a shift from his predecessor, an active-duty general who made explicit his deference to Bolsonaro’s wishes on health policy.

Queiroga told reporters this week that the decrease in hospitalizations has eased demand for oxygen and sedatives for intubation. Stopgap donations from big businesses and the governments of Canada and Spain also shored up supply. The Health Ministry is also preparing a tender for the acquisition of more sedatives.

The minister has stopped short of embracing public health experts’ calls for lockdowns and restrictions on activity, and hasn’t ruled out use of drugs that rigorous testing has shown to be ineffective. But he showed recognition that Brazil isn’t yet free and clear, and remains in “a very serious moment of the pandemic.”Brazil’s new Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga adjusts his protective face mask before the start of a press conference

Queiroga joined the World Health Organization’s Friday news briefing, and didn’t comment on Brazil’s grim milestone of 400,000 deaths.

The WHO’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus, said the pandemic still threatens to unravel gains Brazil’s health care system achieved over decades, but commemorated the recent decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations, cases and deaths.

“We hope this trend continues,” Tedros said, “but the pandemic has taught us that no country can ever let down its guard.”In this March 19, 2021 photo, a healthcare worker lends against a wall in the corridor of an ICU unit for COVID-19 patients at the Hospital das Clinicas in Porto Alegre. (AP Photo/Jefferson Bernardes)

source: https://apnews.com/article/brazil-pandemics-coronavirus-business-health-5098f08f4bb99e87cff842504ae2da83

Here, Rio de Janeiro's economic upswing is at its most tangible. The view at its best. Hotel prices are still reasonable, and the party atmosphere is at its hottest. Join the favelas.

from  https://www.vagabond.no/reportasjer/2015-12/rio-de-janeiro-favela-fra-et-frynsete-rykte-til-favorittbydel

If a few years ago you asked the taxi drivers at the entrance to the Vidigal favela if they could drive you up to Arvrão on top of the favela, they would think you were crazy. Arvrão is a large tree where drug cartels used to hang their enemies. Now, almost three years later, the cartels have been disarmed, and the square by the Big Tree has become one of the most popular vantage points in Rio. Tourists are queuing to ride a mototaxi up to the top. I approach one of the taxi boys and ask if he can drive me up.

• It costs 30 kroner, he says. I explain that I am not a tourist, but have lived in Rio for the last 12 years. It does not matter. Those who live in Vidigal pay a tier. Everyone else pays 30 kroner. I hop on the motorcycle and he hands me a helmet. The trip goes up the paved road that turns through the favela with 14,000 inhabitants. In the beginning we see sushi bars, brokerage offices and internet cafes along the streets. Commerce is flourishing. Old dilapidated houses have given way to modern apartments. The economic development in Brazil is most visible in the favelas. As we approach the top, the road becomes narrower and the asphalt is replaced with cobblestones. It feels like you have gotten out into the countryside. The houses are colorful and not as close together. It is quiet, the trees are in bloom and those who live here are walking slowly along the sidewalks. Further up is the new hotel where the upper class tends to hold its infamous parties. The mototaxi drops me off outside, and I walk the last stretch up to Arvrão. The large tree rises in the square, which offers the best views of the beaches of Leblon and Ipanema. A cool breeze blows in, and I understand why tourists go right here. Two Brazilian models from the white, southern part of Rio admire the view. Despite living in Rio for many years, this is the first time they are in a favela.

• I did not think it would be so quiet and calm, says one model and waves away the hair that blows over the face. – I do not understand why I have been so scared before. The blonde models go into a brick building, and I get curious about what’s hiding in there. From the outside, it looks like there is a poor family living here. Inside I find a modern bar that is more reminiscent of the hip Ipanema. The bar Da Laje (From the Roof) is created by one of Rio’s most famous actors and has a magical view. Along the railing, the sofa groups are spread out, and here and there champagne coolers have been set out. The models settle down and are immediately greeted by a bunch of funkeiros, young local hip hop guys. – Welcome to the favel lounge, they say. The most democratic thing about Rio is that the poorest have the best view. The families cannot afford to have their children in private schools, do not have private health insurance or the opportunity to shop at the city’s exclusive shopping centers, but they own the view that the rich want. By going out on the balcony and watching the waves crash against the beaches down there, the families in Vidigal forget about everyday worries. Recently, tourists have also discovered the charm of staying in a favela.

Location
Av Atlântica
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Location of Copacabana Beach on map© Mapbox© OpenStreetMap contributors

A magnificent confluence of land and sea, the long, scalloped beach of Copacabana extends for some 4km, with a flurry of activity along its length: over-amped soccer players singing their team’s anthem; cariocas (residents of Rio) and tourists lining up for caipirinhas at kiosks; favela kids showing off their soccer skills; and beach vendors shouting out their wares among the tanned beach bodies.

Each group stakes out its stretch of sand. The area between the Copacabana Palace hotel and Rua Fernando Mendes is the gay and cross-dresser section, known as the Stock or Stock Market – easily recognized by the rainbow flag. Young football and futevôlei (soccer volleyball) players hold court near Rua Santa Clara. Postos 5 and 6 are a mix of favela kids and carioca retirees, while the spot next to Forte de Copacabana is the colônia dos pescadores (fishermen’s colony). As Copacabana Beach curves north you get into the quieter sands of Leme (Av Princesa Isabel forms the demarcation between the two neighborhoods). Here you’ll find a mix of older Leme residents as well as kids from the nearby favelas of Babilônia and Chapeu Mangueira.

The beach is lit at night and there are police in the area, but it’s still not wise to walk there after dark – stay near the liveliest beach kiosks when venturing out. Av NS de Copacabana is also sketchy – watch out on weekends, when the shops are closed and there are few locals around.

Source: http://www.brazil.gov.br/about-brazil/coming-to-brazil

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