Brazil’s horror figure: 500,000 deaths

Brazil has reached the nightmare number: 500,000 deaths from COVID-19.

Researchers warn that more and more pregnant women are dying from COVID-19.

On Saturday, thousands protested the president’s handling of the pandemic.

Brazil It has now reported half a million deaths from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. Only the United States has more deaths.

On Saturday, thousands of people demonstrated across Brazil to protest President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic. Reuters writes that the president is being criticized, among other things, for not receiving the vaccine in a timely manner, and for questioning the use of mouthguards.

The demonstrators carried banners reading “500,000 dead” and accused the president of committing massacres calling for Bolsonaro and his government to resign.

42 pregnant deaths per week

Researchers in São Paulo, one of the country’s worst-hit cities, say the gamma variant, formerly known as the Brazilian variant or P1, has begun infecting and killing an astonishing number of pregnant women and their unborn children. Sky News reports.

Currently, 42 pregnant women die every week from COVID-19 in Brazil. More is taken care of in the ventilator.

This type is more contagious. But I think the biggest problem is that the healthcare system for maternity care in Brazil is very poor, says Dr. Rosana Pulcinelli Vieira Francisco at Sky News Observatory.

In some states, treatment for a pregnant woman begins in public hospitals. When their condition worsens, babies should be delivered by caesarean section. Then the women should be transferred to another hospital while on the ventilator, Francisco says.

She believes that this is one of the reasons for the high maternal mortality rate in the country.

Last year, 10 women who were pregnant a week died from COVID-19. So the corresponding number is now over 40, according to statistics provided by the researchers.

The most contagious gamma variant accounts for nine out of ten cases of the virus in São Paulo. Francisco says that, combined with an overburdened healthcare system, puts pregnant women at significant risk.

It will continue to increase

More than 214 million people live in Brazil. Nearly 17.9 million cases of coronavirus have been reported since the beginning of the pandemic. 500,000 died from the virus.

Experts expect deaths to accelerate soon, with the new variables.

“I think we will reach 700,000 or 800,000 dead before we see any effect of vaccination,” Gonzalo Vesena, the former head of the country’s health authority, told Reuters.

Researchers at the Vuecruz Biomedical Center say delays in the vaccination program mean the full effect won’t be seen until September at the earliest.

Rafael Guimarães, a researcher at the center, warns that the country could see scenes of the worst peak of infection in March and April, when an average of 3,000 died of Covid-19 each day.

“We are still in a very critical situation with a high rate of infection and a burden on health care that remains critical in many places,” he told Reuters.

Eleven percent of the Brazilian population has been fully vaccinated. 29 percent received a dose.