It was early November. Roberto (name has been changed) naively thought he was done with the coronavirus. “Everything was getting better and better, the state of emergency was over, we were receiving fewer and fewer patients and we were even closing beds”, remembers with nostalgia this 30-year-old doctor, working in a Covid-19 unit of a large private hospital in the north of Rio de Janeiro.
But at the end of the month, suddenly, the trend is reversed. “From five patients a day, we have grown to 25. Children, adults, the elderly … Some in serious condition”, describes the doctor. In less than two weeks, the 16 beds on the unit fill up. “Today, we are full. We are starting to have deaths again. And we’re all completely exhausted already… ”, Roberto breathes.
The second wave of Covid-19 seems to have indeed arrived in Brazil, the second most bereaved state on the planet by the pandemic, with nearly 175,000 official victims. The “peak” of June-July (300,000 patients and over 7,000 deaths recorded per week) was followed by a slow and laborious improvement in health indicators (around 150,000 positive cases and 3,000 to 4,000 deaths per week in October) . But the lull was short-lived. In November, contaminations started to rise again: in just one month, the number of weekly positive cases has doubled and that of deaths by one and a half.
Sick candidates
The second wave touches many states through the Latin American giant, but Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, already epicenters of the crisis in the spring, are once again facing the most tense situation. In the “wonderful city”, the occupancy rate of intensive care beds dedicated to patients with Covid-19 is now 94% in the public.
But is this really a second wave? “Here, unlike in Europe, the former has never dried up”, recalls Paulo Menezes, epidemiologist at the University of Sao Paulo (USP). Among the causes of the ascent, the latter identifies the “Relaxation of barrier gestures, numerous family meetings and parties …”, but first and foremost, “Municipal elections”.
The latter, organized on November 15 and 29, “Created a lot of gatherings and contacts”, insists Mr. Menezes. During the campaign, several candidates also contracted the disease. Thus, Guilherme Boulos, (unsuccessful) left candidate for mayor of Sao Paulo, forced to stay at home in the home stretch. Or the centrist Maguito Vilela, contender for the post of mayor of Goiânia (center-west), and who learned of his victory from his hospital bed.
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