The doctors and nurses mobilized yesterday in Brasilia in honor of the victims of Covid-19 in Brazil. With a cross in hand, they drew attention to the number of deaths caused by the disease, in addition to highlighting the importance of social isolation for the control of the pandemic.
The demonstration began at 9:30 in front of the Federal Supreme Court. All professionals wore face protection masks and kept a minimum distance of two meters. The mobilization lasted about two hours.
At one point, supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro arrived. The tension escalated when a man with Brazilian flags pounced on a nurse, but the situation did not end in violence.
The protest had three central goals: to defend social isolation on a scientific basis, to honor health workers across Brazil who died fighting Covid-19, and to show the importance of the category.
For the nurse Marcela Vilarim, the act was also a call for help to the population. “We are dying in this fight against Covid-19. We are getting sick, we are no longer a workforce, we are patient. We need more than applause, we need appreciation and respect. And respect goes through maintaining social isolation, ”he assured. According to her, social isolation is extremely important to contain the speed of the epidemic.
Bolsonaro, who tends to underestimate the severity of the virus and defends the end of quarantines, maintains a strong hand with the country’s governors and mayors, who have the competence to impose quarantines on their territories, in accordance with the Constitution.
Social distancing measures apply, to a greater or lesser degree, in the 27 states of the country and are recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). However, the head of state has repeatedly demanded the reopening of shops because, he says, unemployment also “causes deaths” and insists that “the economy cannot stop.”
The president this week blamed governors and mayors for the increase in deaths from COVID-19, which in Brazil now number almost 6,000, with more than 85,000 confirmed cases. Brazil recorded 428 new deaths from coronavirus in the last 24 hours. The balance also indicated that 38,039 of those infected have successfully recovered from the virus, equivalent to 41% of the total.
The state of Sao Paulo, the richest and most populous in Brazil, with some 46 million inhabitants, continues to be the hardest hit by the pandemic with 2,511 deaths and 30,374 infected with COVID-19.
Local authorities inaugurated this Friday the third field hospital in the São Paulo capital of the Ibirapuerta Sports Center, with 268 new beds available for patients with mild symptoms of the disease.
The second most affected Brazilian state is Rio de Janeiro, which accumulates 10,166 cases and 921 deaths and whose health system is already on the verge of collapse.
Given the worsening of the crisis, the state of Maranhao has been the first in the country to adopt measures of total confinement of the population in four municipalities neighboring the city of Sao Luiz, the regional capital, as of May 5.
The situation is also delicate in the state of Amazonas, which, with 476 deaths and 5,723 cases, has its health and funeral services completely overwhelmed and has asked for help from the Bolsonaro government to overcome the crisis.
The pandemic is also advancing among indigenous communities, one of the most vulnerable populations, since some ethnic groups do not have antibodies to diseases such as influenza. According to the Ministry of Health, six Brazilian indigenous people have already died from coronavirus and there are 105 confirmed cases among them.
MORE ABOUT THIS TOPIC:
Jair Bolsonaro called Sergio Moro “Judas”
Fernando Henrique Cardoso: “In Brazil there is a lack of political leadership”
Corresponsal de Argentina, Encargado de seleccionar las noticias más relevantes de su interés a nuestro sitio web NewsPer.com
