People wearing protective masks walk past a graffiti, following the coronavirus disease outbreak, in Rio de Janeiro
BRASILIA, Sept 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazil’s COVID-19 death toll appears to be easing for the first time since May, data shows, a sign the Latin American country could be descending from a long infection plateau that has seen it suffer the world’s second-worst outbreak after the United States.
With nearly 4 million confirmed cases, the virus has killed more than 120,000 people in Brazil. But the level of average daily deaths dropped below 900 per day last week – the lowest in three and a half months and below the rate of both the United States and India.
Researchers at Imperial College London also calculate that the transmission rate in Brazil, at which each person infected with the coronavirus infects another person, is now below 1, the level required for new infections to slow.
However, the rate previously fell below 1 in August, only to rebound a week later, according to Imperial.
The government statistics are also volatile. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Brazil registered more than 1,100 deaths each day, and experts say it is too early to say the worst is over.
“We are on a downward trend compared to the previous high plateau,” said Roberto Medronho, an infectious diseases expert at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. “But, the numbers are still high and we have to remain vigilant so that it doesn’t grow again.”
Epidemiologists see Brazil’s example as a warning to some countries, like India, that are now seeing cases surge.
“Brazil is a cautionary tale,” said Albert Ko, a professor at the Yale School of Public Health who has decades of experience in Brazil. “The epidemic hit hard and many evidence-based interventions were not implemented or done properly in many places.”
Social distancing, held by most public health experts as the key tool for containing the spread of the virus while no vaccine exists, was poorly implemented from the start in Brazil, sustaining the long peak in infections and deaths, experts say.
Stay-at-home measures have been loosened across almost the entire country amid pressure from President Jair Bolsonaro, who has criticised them as harmful to the economy.
Viral photos from the weekend showed packed beaches in Rio de Janeiro. Restaurants and bars are busy in Sao Paulo. — NNN-AGENCIES
