Brazil: the emerging epicenter of COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract INTRODUCTION Five months after the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Brazil, the country has the second highest number of cases in the world. Without any scientifically proven drug or vaccine available combined with COVID-19’s high transmissivity, slowing down the spread of the infection...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical
Main Authors: Mariane Barros Neiva, Isabelle Carvalho, Etevaldo dos Santos Costa Filho, Francisco Barbosa-Junior, Filipe Andrade Bernardi, Tiago Lara Michelin Sanches, Lariza Laura de Oliveira, Vinicius Costa Lima, Newton Shydeo Brandão Miyoshi, Domingos Alves
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical (SBMT) 2020
Subjects:
COVID-19
Sars-Cov-2
Pandemic
Brazil
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine
RC955-962
Arctic
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1590/0037-8682-0550-2020
https://doaj.org/article/a7f5377efe8d4c6a93ce1fc9136e7b11
Description
Summary:Abstract INTRODUCTION Five months after the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Brazil, the country has the second highest number of cases in the world. Without any scientifically proven drug or vaccine available combined with COVID-19’s high transmissivity, slowing down the spread of the infection is a challenge. In an attempt to save the economy, the Brazilian government is slowly beginning to allow non-essential services to reopen for in-person customers. METHODS: In this study, we analyze, based on data analysis and statistics, how other countries evolve and under which conditions they decided to resume normal activity. In addition, due to the heterogeneity of Brazil, we explore Brazilian data of COVID-19 from the State Health Secretaries to evaluate the situation of the pandemic within the states. RESULTS: Results show that while other countries have flattened their curves and present low numbers of active cases, Brazil continues to see an increase in COVID-19 patients. Furthermore, a number of important states are easing restrictions despite a high percentage of confirmed cases. CONCLUSIONS: All analyses show that Brazil is not ready for reopening, and the premature easing of restrictions may increase the number of COVID-19-related deaths and cause the collapse of the public health system.

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