Amid the pandemic, Brazilian cities are recording more deaths than births

For the sixth month in a row, the city of Rio de Janeiro has recorded more deaths than births, an indication of the crisis caused by the Covid-19 virus in Brazil.

The capital, Rio de Janeiro, recorded 36,437 deaths in March – a 16% increase from 32,060 new births per month, according to the national civil registry. And Rio was not the only city to achieve this feat. And at least ten other Brazilian cities with more than 500,000 residents recorded more deaths than births in the past month.

Cities across the country have been hit hard by the recent increase in cases and deaths from Covid-19, driven in part by new variants considered more contagious, as well as the ineffectiveness of the adopted distance measures.

Last week, for the first time in history, Rio Grande do Sul recorded a total of 15,802 deaths, compared to 11,971 births in March – of the total lives lost in March, more than 7,000 were due to complications from the new Corona virus, according to data from the state government. . The numbers take into account deaths from all causes and not just from Covid-19.

Brazil recorded, Tuesday (13), 3808 deaths and 82,186 new cases of the new Coronavirus, according to data collected by the National Council of Health Secretaries (Konas) during the past 24 hours.

As of Wednesday (14), the total number of deaths in the country has reached 358,425 deaths and 13,599,994 people infected with Covid-19 since the start of the epidemic, in March of last year. The large numbers of deaths recorded daily are reflected in the moving average of deaths, which is 3068 – the second highest rate since the first records of the disease.

Intensive care beds

Hospitals have also been overloaded and elective surgeries are being rescheduled. The state of intensive care beds available to residents is also worrisome and there are queues in the states

According to a survey conducted by the agency CNN, 22 Brazilian capitals have ICU bed occupancy rates of over 80%. Occupancy in ICU beds in Rondonia and the Federal District is 100%.

Photo: Reproduction / CNN

Rio Grande do Sul, Mato Grosso do Sul, and Sergipe all ran their beds above 100% occupancy. According to experts, rates above 90% are already a breakdown of the health system. No state, according to the survey, has less than 83% of household occupancy as of Wednesday (14).

The rhythm of vaccination in Brazil

In vaccination against Covid-19, Brazil remains in ninth place in application of the doses, given the number of doses per 100 inhabitants, compared to the other countries that make up the G20, a group of the 20 largest economies in the world.

In this ranking, the country ranks ninth, with 14.87 doses applied per 100 inhabitants. The United Kingdom, which reported on Tuesday (13) that it has already vaccinated all adults over the age of 50, is in first place, with 58.70 doses applied to every 100 people.

The United States is second (56.72), followed by Germany (22.70), Turkey (22.21) and Canada (22.07). Italy ranked sixth, with 21.98 doses per 100 inhabitants, followed by France (21.33) and Saudi Arabia (18.39).

In absolute numbers, taking into account the G20, Brazil is ranked fifth in the ranking. With 31.47 million doses implemented as of Tuesday (13), Brazil is behind the United States, China, India and the United Kingdom.

Photo: CNN

(With information from Julanne Jucá, Vital Neto, and Paloma Souza, from CNN, In Sao Paulo)