In Brazil, COVID-19 hitting young people harder

RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) - More young people are dying of COVID19 in Brazil than other countries, a trend driven partly by demographics — the overall population is younger — but also by poverty and the need to work.

The South American giant of 210 million people is the latest flashpoint in the coronavirus pandemic, rapidly rising to third this week on the list of countries with the most

infections.

With more than 310,000 cases, it lags behind only the United States and Russia.

Brazil's death toll surged past 20,000 Thursday.

A closer look at the data raises questions about the widely held idea that COVID19 is mainly dangerous for the elderly.

Of Brazil's victims, 69 percent were aged 60 or older, compared with 95 percent in Spain and Italy, according to official statistics.

The disparity is partly driven by the age of the overall populace: Just 13.6 percent of Brazil's population is 60 or older, compared to 25 percent in Spain and 28 percent in Italy.

But demographics do not tell the whole story.

"Since Brazil has a younger population, it's normal for the number of cases to be higher among under-60s. But it's also because young adults are observing stay-at-home measures less," said Mauro Sanchez, an epidemiologist at the University of Brasilia.

"Young (Brazilians) aren't responding to the virus differently. It's because they're more exposed," he told AFP.

"What's perverse is that a lot of the people who are exposing themselves to the virus are doing it because they don't have a choice."

'Worrying statistics'

The phenomenon has become more pronounced as the pandemic progresses here.

In early April, 19 percent of COVID-19 deaths in Brazil were among under-60s. This week, that figure rose to 31 percent.

Studies based on cell phone location data indicate Brazilians are observing stay-athome measures less and less.

Some experts pin the blame for that on disjointed government policies: Stay-at-home measures are decided at the state and local level, but at the federal level, far-right President Jair Bolsonaro regularly rails against them.

Bolsonaro, who has famously compared the coronavirus to a "little flu," says business closures are needlessly hurting the economy, which is facing a deep recession this year.

He has urged Brazilians to get back to work.

But the working-age population is vulnerable to the disease, too.

Brazil's official statistics do not break down coronavirus infections by age, and experts say under-testing means the real number of cases is probably far higher than the health ministry's figures.

A group of researchers called COVID-19 Brasil estimates the country has more than 3.6 million infected people — more than 10 times higher than the official figure.

It estimates the age groups with the most infections are 20 to 29 and 30 to 39 years old, with more than 580,000 infections each — twice as many as those aged 60 to 69.

Cemeteries race to keep up with virus The day after Brazil registered a record 1,179 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours, Sao Paulo grave digger Moises Francisco notched a bleak milestone of his own.

Francisco works at Vila Formosa, the biggest cemetery in Latin America, a seemingly endless field of graves on the east side of Sao Paulo.

In normal times, he usually has about 15 bodies waiting for him when he gets to work at 8 a.m., he said.

On Wednesday, the day after Brazil's death toll leapt by more than 1,000 in a day for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began, there were 33 bodies waiting to be buried.

A troubling surge in coronavirus deaths in Brazil is keeping the crew at Vila Formosa busy.

"We've been working 12hour days, burying them one after the other. It doesn't stop," said one, wearing a white protective suit, mask and plastic face shield to protect himself from the virus.

In the background, backhoes rumbled and shovels clanked as his colleagues scrambled to keep up with the crush of new corpses in Sao Paulo, the epicenter of the pandemic in Brazil.

"We used to handle an average of 30 to 35 burials a day. On a busy day — 45. Now we are burying 60 a day," said James Alan, supervisor of one team of grave diggers.

At the outset of the pandemic, Sao Paulo hired 220 temporary workers as reinforcements for its 22 municipal cemeteries.

At Vila Hermosa, which spans 750,000 square meters (185 acres) and holds the remains of an estimated 1.5 million people, the grave diggers nervously battle the clock as they work the deep red earth.

Burials for COVID-19 victims retain little of the usual funeral rituals.

There are no wakes, and the bodies are interred in less than five minutes.

"They don't even let the families dress them. They wrap them in three bags at the hospital," said Flavia Dias, who was accompanying a friend whose father died of the virus.

Only five mourners are allowed at a time.

Sometimes no one comes at all.