Brazil emerging as next virus hot spot

British PM urges caution as Europe, US relax measures

Brazil is emerging as potentially the next big hot spot for the coronavirus amid President Jair Bolsonaro’s insistence that it is just a “little flu” and that there is no need for the sharp restrictions that have slowed the infection’s spread in Europe and the US.

As some US states and European countries moved gradually to ease their limits on movement and commerce, the intensifying outbreak in Brazil — Latin America’s biggest country, with 211 million people — pushed some hospitals to the breaking point, with signs that a growing number of victims are now dying at home.

“We have all the conditions here for the pandemic to become much more serious,” said Paulo Brandao, a virologist at the University of Sao Paulo.

Brazil officially reported about 4500 deaths and almost 67,000 confirmed infections. But the true numbers there, as in many other countries, is believed to be vastly higher given the lack of testing and the many people without severe symptoms who haven’t sought hospital care.

Some scientists said more than 1 million in Brazil are probably infected. The country is heading into winter, which can worsen respiratory illnesses.

The official death toll yesterday topped 210,000 worldwide, with more than 3 million confirmed infections, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The number of dead in the US yesterday surpassed 57,000 — closing in on the 58,000 US troops killed during the Vietnam War. Italy, Britain, Spain and France accounted for more than 20,000 deaths each.

A thinner-looking British Prime Minister Boris Johnson returned to work yesterday after a bout of coronavirus and warned strongly against easing the country’s lockdown, even as other European nations and US states began lifting restrictions to get their economies going again.

Johnson, recovering from an infection that nearly cost the 55-year-old his life, said Britain is starting to “turn the tide” on the outbreak but added that this is “the moment of maximum risk”. The country’s lockdown runs through at least May 7.

“I refuse to throw away all the effort and the sacrifice of the British people and to risk a second major outbreak and huge loss of life and the overwhelming of the NHS,” or National Health Service, he said. “I ask you to contain your impatience.”

In Brazil, Bolsonaro has disputed the seriousness of the coronavirus and said people need to resume their lives to prevent an economic meltdown. But most state governors in the country have adopted restrictions to slow the spread and pushed people to stay at home.

Medical officials in Rio de Janeiro and at least four other major cities have warned that their hospital systems are on the verge of collapse.

Officials in Sao Paulo — the largest city in South America, a tightly packed metropolitan area of more than 21 million residents, many living in poverty — have issued death certificates over the past two weeks for 236 people who succumbed at home, double the number before the outbreak, according to the SAMU paramedic service.

Manaus, an Amazon city of 1.8 million, recorded 142 deaths on Monday, the most yet, including 41 who died at home. In the main cemetery, workers have been digging mass graves. Brazil’s funeral industry warned last week that the city was running out of coffins and “there could soon be corpses left on corners”.

In the US, the governors of Nevada and Colorado announced their states would join California, Oregon and Washington state in co-ordinating their reopenings. The governors of all five states are Democrats.

In Georgia, where Republican Governor Brian Kemp has let businesses reopen, restaurants received the goahead to resume dine-in service as long as they follow certain restrictions, including keeping tables 2m apart.

Technology is likely to play an important role in helping countries ease their restrictions. Many countries, including Italy, France, Switzerland and Britain, are working on virus-tracking apps and other means of reducing the labourintensive task of tracing infected people’s contacts.

In Australia, with about 80 Covid19 deaths, 1.1 million of the country’s 26 million people downloaded a new contact-tracing app within 12 hours of its becoming available.

Other countries, including Italy, France, Switzerland and Britain, are also developing their own.

In another encouraging sign amid the gloom, New York state reported 337 deaths, the lowest daily count this month, down from a high of nearly 800 almost three weeks ago. And Italy registered its lowest day-to-day number of new cases of Covid-19 since practically the first day the nation was put under lockdown in early March.