Poor and black, northeast Brazil faces virus ‘hurricane’
Poor and black, northeast Brazil faces virus ‘hurricane’ 465,166 infected
RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil on Friday reached 27,878 coronavirus deaths, official figures showed, surpassing the toll of hard-hit Spain and making it the country with the fifth-highest number of fatalities. The epicenter of the South American coronavirus outbreak, Brazil saw 1,124 deaths in 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said. It also had a record number of new cases - 26,928 in one day - bringing the total number of infections to 465,166. The United States, Britain, Italy and France lead the world in coronavirus deaths. As of Friday Spain had recorded 27,121 deaths, with virus fatalities there rapidly slowing.
Brazil could soon surpass France, which has seen 28,714 deaths. Brazil is second in the number of confirmed cases, though trailing far behind the United States which has 1.7 million infections. Brazil has seen 131.2 coronavirus deaths per one million people - compared to more than 300 in the United States and 580 in Spain - but the pandemic has yet to peak in the South American country. “There is no way to foresee” when the outbreak will peak, the Ministry of Health said, and experts say the number of cases in Brazil could be 15 times higher than the confirmed figure because there has been no widespread testing.
Virus ‘hurricane’
Brazil’s northeast, a harsh place of arid land, cyclical drought and crushing poverty, is emerging as the next crisis zone in the coronavirus pandemic. As the virus surges in Brazil - which now has the second-most cases in the world after the United States - the country’s poorest region has been hit hard, both by the disease and the painful measures taken to contain it. The nine states of the northeast have the second-highest number of cases and deaths in Brazil, after the wealthy southeast, where the outbreak began. For the 7.7 million people in the northeast who live on less than $2 a day, getting by is hard in the best of times. Add lockdowns that have interrupted the meager services they depend on - things like school lunches for hungry children and water deliveries for those who have none - and they are being pushed to the brink.
“In 26 years, I’ve never seen so many people living in fear, so many people going hungry,” said Alcione Albanesi, founder of the charity Amigos do Bem. “Everything has ground to a stop. But hunger doesn’t stop.” Her organization distributes food, water and hygiene supplies to communities in the hot, dry Sertao, or “backcountry,” where many families scrape out a living farming the cracked, unforgiving earth. Preventive measures such as hand-washing are theoretical there, at best. Many people barely have water. Those who get sick often face a long trip to the nearest town in an oxcart, then several hours of public transportation to the hospital. When they arrive, hospitals sometimes lack basic supplies, even bed sheets, said Albanesi.
Migrants turned vectors
The pandemic is accelerating fast in the northeast, spreading from coastal capitals such as Salvador, Recife and Fortaleza to the interior. In early April, the region had 17.6 percent of the total coronavirus cases in Brazil. Today, the proportion has risen to 33.7 percent. The region has registered nearly 150,000 cases, and almost 8,000 deaths, out of 27,000 nationwide. It is no coincidence its caseload has followed close on the heels of that of the southeast, the business and industrial corridor that includes Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Countless migrants who left the northeast to work in the southeast lost their jobs because of stay-at-home measures. Brazilian media have documented how many of them are returning home, taking clandestine buses that use dirt roads to skirt lockdown measures.