Despite the drop in deaths and positive cases of Covid-19 in recent weeks, more than 3,000 people have died from the virus in just over three months in Brazil.
The most recent data released by the Ministry of Health’s Flu Syndrome Surveillance show that, as of April 13, 3,012 people had died and more than 560,000 cases had been confirmed.
In cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, there were 13,681, where hospitalization was necessary, 40% of which were due to Covid-19.
Doctor Estêvão Urbano, president of the Minas Gerais Society of Infectious Diseases, highlights that currently the numbers provided by the Ministry of Health do not have detailed information on deaths as happened at the peak of the pandemic, such as information on age, whether they were people with incomplete vaccination or with comorbidities , for example. But the doctor explains that potential victims of Covid-19, which can lead to death, are still grouped into two groups.
“We have noticed, in our daily practice here, the two major risk groups for death: they are very elderly individuals, with many comorbidities, or even younger individuals, but severely immunosuppressed. These patients, in most times, they took the vaccines – not necessarily, all doses. But they are unable to maintain a prolonged level of immunity, due to their own weaknesses”.
The infectious disease specialist talks about the need to keep vaccination reinforcement up to date, not only for these two groups, but also for those who are not included in this profile, such as healthy young people; who may end up having the so-called long covid, which is the prolonged manifestation of symptoms and sequelae of covid. These people can also become agents of contamination for others in the risk group around them.
“They can develop this severe case, even if they do not progress to death. They are now starting to even have, young healthy people, the so-called long Covid, and those people who are in risk groups, they should take care of themselves. protect to protect them. Because generally the people who are going to hospitals – being admitted to the ICU and, sometimes, dying – were not the ones who got the virus, they brought it to themselves in some way”.
Several Brazilian capitals have been reporting a lack of vaccines in their stocks, some with a representative population, such as São Paulo, Recife and Curitiba. In a note, the Ministry of Health says that there is no shortage of vaccines for Covid-19 in the country and that pediatric doses and monovalent and bivalent doses for adults are available in most states.
The Ministry of Health also informs that 12.5 million doses of the updated vaccine (which protects against the XBB.1 strain, a sub-variant of omicron) will be distributed throughout the country in the coming weeks. The purchase was made through bidding last Friday (19). According to the ministry, this was the first time that two competing companies competed for the supply of vaccines against Covid-19 in Brazil and this generated savings of R$100 million.
The Ministry of Health continues with the same recommendations for protection against the virus: keeping the vaccination schedule updated against Covid-19, in addition to the use of masks for everyone, especially in crowded environments, or those with low air renewal. Testing is also recommended for those who have flu-like symptoms and something that Brazilians have been abandoning in their daily lives and which was one of the first protection recommendations: the use of alcohol gel.
*Produced by Dayana Vitor and reporting by Madson Euler.
