Brazil reached, this Ash Wednesday (2), 650,052 lives lost to Covid since the beginning of the pandemic. The most recent 50,000 losses came 145 days after the country reached 600,000 dead – the longest gap between milestones in the coronavirus health crisis.
Previously, the longest time interval between brands had been at the beginning of the pandemic, when, in one hundred days, the country went from the 1st official death by Covid, on March 12, 2020, to 50,058 deaths, on June 20, 2020. same year.
This Wednesday, there were 335 deaths from Covid and 29,841 cases of the disease. With this, Brazil reached a total of 28,839,306 people infected with Sars-CoV-2.
The data for Rio de Janeiro were not disclosed.
Moving averages of deaths and cases remain on the decline (which, in part, may be associated with the recent holiday). The average number of deaths now stands at 509 per day, a 39% reduction from two weeks ago. The average number of infections is 50,543 a day, down 57% from the figure two weeks earlier.
The country data, collected up to 8 pm, are the result of collaboration between sheet, UOL, O Estado de S. Paulo, Extra, O Globo and G1 to gather and publish the numbers related to the new coronavirus pandemic. The information is collected by the consortium of press vehicles daily with the state Health Departments.
The brand requires a reflection on the sequence of serious errors in Covid control policies in the country, says Raquel Stucchi, professor at Unicamp and consultant to SBI (Brazilian Society of Infectology).
During the last few years, President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and allies, on numerous occasions, have minimized the lethal potential of Covid and disseminated false information, including alleged treatments, about the disease.
More recently, the Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, took a reticent stance on childhood vaccination, stating that only parents who wanted to vaccinate their children. Such a position by Queiroga is in line with Bolsonaro’s stance of casting doubt on the infant immunizer, which has been proven to be safe.
“It is noticeable that we are, without a doubt, in a better moment than we have been in the last two years”, says Stucchi. “We know more about the disease, we know how to face it, but mainly because we have vaccines that can reduce the percentage of people with severe forms of Covid.”
According to the infectologist, the vaccine is responsible for a longer time span for a new mark of 50,000 additional deaths.
“This gives us a certain contained optimism, as I heard from a colleague, to face the coming months and maybe even live better with Covid-19”, says Stucchi, recalling the need to advance vaccination with the booster dose.
At the moment, the country has only 30.17% of the population with a booster dose. The availability of the new dose was announced in mid-November. It is available four months after application of the second dose.
Stucchi also recalls that, although the country seems to be in a less serious moment, compared to others already experienced — there have already been moving averages of deaths above 3,000 daily deaths —, it cannot be forgotten that without a broad and egalitarian vaccination around the world , with access to complete populations from all countries, new variants can still surprise us, as did the Ômicron with its vaccine escape and extraordinary transmission capacity.
And that brings up the point that you can’t let your guard down against the disease. It is possible that vaccination against Covid will become something regular for some groups, as is done with influenza immunization.
Another protection that should not be lowered is the mask, which must still continue as part of our daily lives in closed environments or other places with a high risk of transmission, says Stucchi, even if the rules for the use of face protection are withdrawn by governments. Care must be redoubled among people who are at greater risk for serious disease, even fully vaccinated, such as the elderly and immunosuppressed.
“The great care we have to take is to know that the virus continues to circulate and it can be serious for people who, even vaccinated, do not respond so well to the vaccines that we have available”, he explains.
Another challenge that should deepen in the coming months, she warns, is dealing with the long-term Covid and its impact on health systems.
Vaccination
Vaccination data against Covid-19 was affected for a long time by the hacker attack on the Ministry of Health system, which took place in December. This Wednesday, the information was updated in 22 states and the Federal District.
The consortium of press vehicles recently updated the Brazilian population numbers used to calculate the percentage of people vaccinated in the country. Now, the data used are the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) projection for 2022.
All numbers are now calculated according to these values, including last year’s. Therefore, the percentages of people vaccinated may differ from the previously published figures.
Brazil registered 539,576 doses of vaccines against Covid-19, this Wednesday. According to data from the state health departments, there were 97,395 first doses and 129,428 second doses. 316,456 booster shots were also recorded.
Single doses had negative numbers (-3,703), due to the numbers recorded in Ceará (-4,744).
In all, 172,732,248 people received at least the first dose of a vaccine against Covid in Brazil — 150,622,426 of them have already received the second dose of the immunizer. Added to the single doses of Janssen’s vaccine against Covid, there are already 155,320,630 people with both doses or with one dose of Janssen vaccine.
Thus, the country already has 80.40% of the population with the 1st dose and 72.30% of Brazilians with both doses or with one dose of the Janssen vaccine. Considering only the adult population, the values are, respectively, 106.77% and 96.01%.
The consortium also started recording the doses of vaccines given to children. The population aged 5 to 11 years partially immunized (with only the first dose of vaccine received) is 44.26%. In the same age group, 0.71% received the second dose or the single dose.
Considering the entire population over 5 years of age, 86.30% received one dose and 77.60% received two doses or the single dose Janssen vaccine.
Even those who received both doses or one dose of the Janssen vaccine should maintain basic care, such as wearing a mask and social distancing, say experts.
The initiative of the consortium of press vehicles occurred in response to the attitudes of the Bolsonaro government, which threatened to withhold data, delayed newsletters about the disease and took information from the air, with the interruption of the disclosure of the totals of cases and deaths. In addition, the government has released conflicting data.
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