Isolation grows in the country with the explosion of the omicron and holidays

The end of 2021 was a “normal life” for Matheus Perretti, 22. Parties, meetings with friends and face-to-face work were once again part of the paulistano’s routine. Until the omicron came and took him and the whole group celebrating New Years on the beach by surprise.

“I’m already released from quarantine, but now I just go to work and stay at home, I’m very afraid of catching influenza or anything like that”, says the investment adviser, who is trying to resell an event ticket and is already thinking about canceling. her birthday in March for the third time.

He is one of many Brazilians who have decided to stay at home since the recent explosion of Covid-19 cases and contributed to an increase in the home stay index (IPD), created by researchers at Fiocruz and calculated by leaf based on Google circulation data.

The number followed a downward trend since mid-April, when deaths from the disease hit records, but it rose again from December 24, Christmas Eve. The large number of patients in quarantine and the fear of contamination, added to the holidays, explain the movement.

“There was a scare, even more with Covid and influenza together. There is no one at this moment who does not have an acquaintance or who is not sick”, says psychoanalyst Cristiane Blaha, coordinator of the project Somos Ouvindo, of the Brazilian Society of Psychoanalysis in Rio de Janeiro. Janeiro, which had a surge in online calls in the last week.

Public health experts consider, however, that the increase in isolation is now relatively small and insufficient given the size of the wave of cases that is spreading across the country at unprecedented speed. The IPD, until Friday (14), was at the same pre-pandemic level.

In December, even, the level of people at home was lower than before the emergence of the coronavirus. Contributing to the relaxation of the holidays after nearly two years of restrictions, a feeling of protection with vaccinations and a data blackout that concealed the spread of the micron.

A survey carried out by Datafolha last Wednesday (12) showed that the percentage of people who say they are only leaving the house when it is unavoidable dropped from 41%, on March 15, to 24%. Most (60%) now claim to be taking care, but leaving, and only 4% remain totally isolated.

The survey also showed that two out of ten Brazilians spent New Year’s Eve in groups of 11 or more people. This rate was higher among the youngest (16 to 24 years old), with complete secondary education or higher education.

Marina Lemos, 30, from Minas Gerais, was one of those who took advantage of the end of the year, but was later forced to isolate herself after contracting the virus in Rio. , but I was trusting the vaccine”, says the business analyst.

The Southeast is the region with the highest rate of people at home today. São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Distrito Federal and Minas Gerais were the states that had an increase in isolation above the national average in the last two weeks.

Acre, Pará and Roraima, on the other hand, are the least inmates, which contributes to the North continuing with the lowest indicator, as it was during most of the time of the pandemic. All regions, however, follow the same trend as the country.

The isolation curve now is similar to that of the transition from 2020 to 2021, when there were also holidays and a surge in cases of the gamma variant, which appeared in Manaus at the end of December. But on a smaller level, that is, there are far fewer people at home right now than last New Year’s.

Political scientist Lorena Barberia, a member of the Covid-19 BR Observatory research network, explains that whenever there is a significant growth of the disease, there is more reclusion of the population.

“What we have noticed in studies is: when governments increase restriction policies and when deaths increase, isolation increases. It is a very consistent relationship over the two years”, he says. “Already the speeches of the president [Jair Bolsonaro] on TV, for example, didn’t change their behavior much.”

Now, however, the stay-at-home initiative has been much more spontaneous than encouraged by authorities. Unlike countries like Spain, France and Germany, Brazilian states have not announced significant new circulation limitations, in general.

“Some governments are reacting by opening beds, but that’s not all. It needs to increase the population’s alert level, the orientation to wear a mask and avoid agglomeration. It was very clear that tourist places and parties had mass infection”, emphasizes Ivana Barreto, one of the researchers at Fiocruz in Ceará who created the isolation index.

Barberia agrees: “It is necessary to return to discussing behaviors that we know work against the virus. What works is not just staying at home. Physical distance in supermarket lines and public transport, a good mask and also limiting events. time for big parties and concerts, even with proof of vaccination”, opines.

The political scientist also highlights that Brazil no longer has social protection measures for those who cannot stay out of work when having contact with the sick and that, even when she had emergency aid, she failed to communicate that the money was an incentive to isolation.

Back to school is another worrying factor at the moment, with the delay in vaccinating children, which started on Friday. In Barreto’s assessment, schools should only reopen after coverage of the first dose has reached a certain level in this age group.

With the end of the vacation period and without official incentives or restriction measures, the expectation is that the rise in isolation will not last long. In recent days, the index’s moving average has already begun to stabilize, as it did last year.

Marina, from Minas Gerais, for example, already intends to leave the quarantine. “Especially after I got Covid, which I’m considering myself immune for a few weeks,” he says. “It’s hard to be stuck knowing that everything is happening and mortality is low, for now.”