Brazil Hospitals Overwhelmed As New COVID-19 Variants Worsen Crisis

Faced with a growing number of COVID-19 cases and new coronavirus variants, hospitals in Brazil are becoming overwhelmed as they run out of intensive-care unit beds.

The ICU occupancy rate in Brazil is higher than it's ever been since the pandemic began, according to a Feb. 26 report by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, a research institute affiliated with the Brazilian Ministry of Health.

Among 26 states and 1 federal district, 18 of these have ICU occupancy rates above 80%. Nine have more than 90% capacity, and are on the brink of collapse as a result, CNN noted from government data.

Brazil on Monday recorded 35,742 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, which included 778 deaths. The country has registered over 10 million cases as of Tuesday, and the death toll stands at 255,720, according to Johns Hopkins University.

And the new variants of COVID-19 that were detected in the country have worsened the situation even more.

Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said that the new variants have made controlling the pandemic especially challenging. “The mutated virus has three times more contamination capacity, and the speed can surprise governors in terms of structure and support. This is the reality we have today in Brazil,” he told state governors on Feb. 25.

Brazil’s coronavirus response has been marred by political infighting, vaccine skepticism and a chaotic rollout of doses. President Jair Bolsonaro has often downplayed the severity of the virus, questioned the use of face masks and criticized social distancing.

The president had dismissed COVID-19 as a “little flu” and called the restrictions imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 as “scorched-earth” policies.

Health officials have now called for lockdowns in several parts of the country. Brazil's National Council of Health Secretaries said in an open letter that there should be restrictions at the “maximum level” in regions where over 85% of hospital beds are occupied, with the percentage about to get higher, “to avoid the imminent national collapse of the public and private health care networks.”

The council, which represents the 27 health secretaries, urged lockdowns in cities where no ICU beds were available and curfews in other cities.

Making matters even worse is Brazil's vaccination campaign, which has been marred by delays and shortages of doses. Five weeks after the first shot was administered in January, Brazil has vaccinated only 3.6% of its population.

The country's Health Ministry last week signed a deal with Indian pharmaceutical company Bharat Biotech to procure 20 million doses of its Covaxin vaccine. Bolsonaro said the first 8 million Covaxin doses will arrive in the country this month.