More people were again admitted to Covid’s ICUs in the state of São Paulo. The increase now seems unequivocal and on the order of 50% since December 10th. It must be said at the outset that this “50%” is not alarming as it would have been in the worst moments of the disease. Even so, it is necessary to take measures such as the vaccination of 20 million children, which is what Jair Herodes Bolsonaro wants to hinder.
At least for now, it’s not that alarming. That’s a rise from about 270 new ICU admissions a day to something close to 400. The state already had 3,000 new admissions a day at the end of March, the height of horror.
But there seems to be at least a rebound of the disease, starting from a lower level. Data on ICU admissions in the city of São Paulo follow more or less the same trend.
The idea here is not to cause alarmism. But note at least that: 1) There was some peal; 2) The holiday, party and gathering season has just started; 3) The omicron arrived, although we do not know how much damage the variant causes, in general, and even less specifically in the Brazilian situation; 4) We don’t really know what’s going on, as since December 11 there is no record of deaths and cases in São Paulo.
“There were no updates of information on cases and deaths between the 11th and 22nd of December due to problems in the Covid-19’s federal data notification system”, says the official bulletin of the government of the state of São Paulo.
In the UK, omicron became dominant (causes the majority of new known cases) in less than a month after the first official record of infection caused by the variant. The number of new cases in the country is a record. But, at least in recent days, the death toll has been dropping.
In the United States, however, the number of deaths was still very high and rose again after the omicron (it is unknown whether because of the omicron). The American daily death rate is now 6.3 per million, about the same as in Germany. If the rate in Brazil were that, more than 1,300 would be dying per day (before the data blackout, on December 10th, around 150 people were dying per day here).
It doesn’t mean that: 1) The omicron will spread so fast in Brazil; 2) That it’s going to cause more or less deaths than Delta — we just can’t know yet.
At least in the Datafolha survey, Brazilians say they will be careful: 62% say they will not have end-of-year parties with people who do not live with them, in the same house. Last year, they were 74%. Yes, it decreased. But after nearly two years of distancing, it is still a considerable number.
However, only a few irresponsible clustering events can spread viruses. Most likely, it won’t be like it was before. In Brazil, 79.6% of people aged 12 and over have completed vaccination (equivalent to 66.5% of the total population). The state of São Paulo has already vaccinated 92.5% of those over 12 years of age and 78% of the total population. There are still those who took only the first dose and may have been infected. In the state, almost 22% of those over 12 years old have already taken a booster dose, in addition.
It is true that it was politically, socially and psychologically unfeasible to return to harsh measures of closure and distancing —unless, of course, in the event of a major new catastrophe. It is possible that, for a long time, Covid was an intense endemic of a serious disease. But we have to do what we can in terms of prudence and vaccinate our 20.5 million children aged 5 to 11 years. It would save children, mothers, fathers, grandparents and caregivers in general.
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I have over 8 years of experience in the news industry. I have worked for various news websites and have also written for a few news agencies. I mostly cover healthcare news, but I am also interested in other topics such as politics, business, and entertainment. In my free time, I enjoy writing fiction and spending time with my family and friends.
