20% of Brazilians say they spent New Year’s Eve with 11 or more people, indicates Datafolha

Two in ten Brazilians say they spent the turn of 2020 to 2021 in groups of 11 or more people, according to a Datafolha survey.

2,023 people over 16 years of age were interviewed by telephone in all Brazilian states, on January 12 and 13 of this year. The margin of error is two percentage points.

Another 19% claim to have spent New Year’s Eve with 6 to 10 people. This means that about 40% of Brazilians spent New Year’s Eve with 6 or more people.

The youngest, aged 16 to 24, were the ones who most spent the turnaround in groups larger than 11 people (29%). About 22% of respondents with complete secondary education and 24% with higher education followed the same path.

At the turn of 2020 to 2021, still without vaccines, amid the expansion of the gamma variant in the country and the increase in cases in Brazil and in the world, experts and health entities indicated that the safest thing would be to spend the holidays in home, without commuting and preferably only with those who lived in their own home.

On the other hand, at the most recent turn of the year, with a broad vaccination coverage of the primary cycle (that is, two doses of vaccine) in the adult population, experts pointed out that finding family members would be something possible.

The concern was the possible impact that the onomicron could have on the country during and after the holiday season. The variant has an extremely higher transmission capacity than the previous ones and was already causing significant increases in cases in places such as South Africa (where it was initially observed), the United States and European countries.

But with some basic care, such as only having fully vaccinated people at the meeting and with a booster dose (if possible), using masks and, preferably, in ventilated places. And another even more important point: small meetings.

Pre-festival testing was also raised as a possibility, but in Brazil, because self-tests are not authorized and because other forms of testing have relatively high prices, this care becomes a little more problematic to put into practice.

Earlier this year, however, Covid cases skyrocketed.

The moving average of infections has exploded 733% from two weeks ago, according to data collected by the media consortium. The average went from 8,180 infected people per day, on December 31, to 68,160 daily cases, this Friday (14).

In December, the Ministry of Health system suffered a cyberattack that made it difficult and even prevented the registration of data from the states related to the pandemic. The folder states that the situation was largely resolved in the same month, as for case and death records. However, it is not possible to rule out the possibility that part of the current numbers are the result of post-attack damming.

Even so, these data are not the only ones that point to the direction of the pandemic in the country.

Covid hospitalizations and bed occupancy also skyrocketed earlier this year. At least a third of the states and ten capitals are on critical or intermediate alert for the occupation of public ICU beds for Covid, according to a bulletin released by Fiocruz.

There is already widespread difficulty in scheduling and carrying out Covid tests, to the point that Abramed (Brazilian Association of Diagnostic Medicine) advises that, due to the risk of shortages, laboratories prioritize tests according to the scale of severity of the disease. This, in fact, is already being done, with testing aimed primarily at patients in serious conditions.

Similar explosion of cases — and significant casualties of health professionals, removed after contamination — are also being experienced in other countries where the omicron has been installed.

The WHO (World Health Organization) even warned that the availability of vaccines could create a false sense of security.

“Vaccines save lives, but they do not completely prevent transmission,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the WHO. He then highlighted the need for attention to other basic care, such as the use of masks, avoiding crowds and spaces with good ventilation.