{"id":115365,"date":"2021-02-27T15:04:11","date_gmt":"2021-02-27T07:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=115365"},"modified":"2021-02-27T15:04:23","modified_gmt":"2021-02-27T07:04:23","slug":"covid-19-brazil-states-tighten-restrictions-as-virus-rages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=115365","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19: Brazil states tighten restrictions as virus rages"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

BRASILIA, Feb 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazilian cities and states have been
imposing a new round of restrictions in a bid to contain a surge of Covid-19
cases threatening to overwhelm their already stretched hospitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brazil, whose death toll passed 250,000 Thursday, is struggling to deal
with a rising tide of infections that has pushed intensive care units close
to the brink in a worrying number of flashpoints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country continues to have a piecemeal response to the new coronavirus, with individual cities and states setting their own policies in the face of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro\u2019s repeated attacks on restrictive measures and face masks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sao Paulo state, population 40 million, this week ordered bars and
restaurants to close at 8 pm. Several cities have also imposed curfews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The southeastern state of Parana closed non-essential businesses and
imposed an 8 pm to 5 am curfew from Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearby Rio Grande do Sul adopted the same measure, starting Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The capital, Brasilia, has ordered schools and all non-essential businesses
closed from Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The northeastern state of Bahia meanwhile closed non-essential retail
stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur health system is about to collapse,\u201d Bahia Governor Rui Costa said
Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBrazil is going to be mired in chaos in two weeks. The problem is getting
worse across the country\u2026. We\u2019ve never had a situation like this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brazil registered its highest weekly death toll of the pandemic Friday: an
average of 1,153 deaths per day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said the \u201cnew phase\u201d was the result of
new, more-contagious virus variants, such as the one that emerged in the
Amazon rainforest city of Manaus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts say the issue goes beyond that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe problem isn\u2019t the new variant, it\u2019s that there\u2019s no pandemic control
program,\u201d epidemiologist Jose Urbaez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brazil began vaccinating its 212 million people in mid-January, but is far
off-pace to meet Pazuello\u2019s pledge of immunizing the entire country by the
end of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolsonaro appeared unconcerned by the latest surge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He shook hands with a crowd of supporters, with no face mask, during a
visit to the northeastern state of Ceara Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day before, he renewed his attacks on masks, insisting they cause \u201cside
effects.\u201d — NNN-AGENCIES
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BRASILIA, Feb 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazilian cities and states have beenimposing a new round of restrictions in a bid to contain a surge of Covid-19cases threatening to overwhelm their already stretched hospitals. Brazil, whose death toll passed 250,000 Thursday, is struggling to dealwith a rising tide of infections that has pushed intensive care units closeto […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":115366,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115365"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/115366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}