COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil

The COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil is a regional sub-happening of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The SARS-CoV-2 virus from the coronavirus family, which emerged in late 2019, causes the respiratory disease COVID-19.

A first COVID-19 case in Brazil was reported on February 25, 2020, and a first death was dated March 17, 2020. As of May 19, 2020, Brazil had about 255,000 infected people, ranking third in the world after the United States and Russia, with about 17,000 deaths. Some estimates in May 2020 suggested that due to the low number of tests, the actual mortality was twice as high and the number of infected was as high as 15 times the official numbers. As of July 4, 2020, Brazil had more than 1.5 million registered infected and more than 63,000 deaths. Only the United States had even higher numbers of infected people.

On August 8, 2020, the Brazilian Ministry of Health reported 100,000 corona deaths. Brazil was the second country after the USA to exceed this threshold. On October 10, 2020, the 150,000 Corona deaths mark was surpassed. By mid-December 2020, the country had more than seven million infected people, and about 185,000 people had died in connection with the virus. By early March 2021, the death toll exceeded 250,000, and 300,000 on March 24. On April 10, 2021, the death toll exceeded 350,000. In addition to adults, 1,300 babies had also died from the virus in Brazil by mid-April 2021. By the end of April, more than 400,000 people had died from the virus. The 500,000 coronavirus death mark was passed on June 19, 2021. That meant Brazil, home to about 2.7% of the world's population, had accounted for about 13% of the world's corona deaths, although the death toll in Brazil is likely still underestimated. Health experts still feared the situation would worsen significantly by the coming winter at the latest, as only 15% of the population was fully vaccinated at that time.

In November 2020, lineage P.1 was found for the first time. This COVID mutation is similar to the British mutation B.1.1.7, which is significantly more contagious and 60% more deadly than the original COVID virus. P.1 spread rapidly in Manaus, soon making the city (it has 2.2 million inhabitants) and the region a COVID hotspot. In some cases, patients are infected with both variants P.1 and B.1.1.7 at the same time. Not least for this reason, there is a risk that cross-breeding of different variants could result in further, potentially even more dangerous mutations, which could possibly also be resistant to the currently available SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. In mid-April 2021, after the pandemic had spiralled out of control and the supply of medicines to hospitals had collapsed, various governors asked the United Nations for humanitarian aid to provide urgently needed painkillers, sedatives and oxygen, as well as vaccines.

President Jair Bolsonaro is considered an important factor in the course of the pandemic in the country. Bolsonaro has come under criticism for his handling of the pandemic, repeatedly downplaying it, denying its dangers, spreading misinformation and failing to initiate measures to combat it. Among other things, he questioned COVID vaccinations and declared he would not get vaccinated. As of March 2021, Bolsonaro continues to deny the dangers of the virus, undermine protective measures against the pandemic ordered by state governors, call for boycotts of lockdowns, and sabotage the vaccination campaign against the virus.

Course and measures

January 2020

As a preventive measure, on January 31, 2020, then Minister of Health Luiz Henrique Mandetta had reactivated an Interministerial Working Group on Public Health Emergencies of National and International Significance, which had met previously during other epidemics.

February 2020

On 3 February 2020, Minister of Health Mandetta issued Decree No. 188 (published in the Official Gazette of 4 February 2020), which recognizes the Health Emergency of International Scope (Portuguese: ESPIN, Emergência em Saúde Pública de importância Nacional) and allows for appropriate measures, including an Operational Emergency Centre (Centro de Operações de Emergências em Saúde Pública (COE-nCoV)) at the Ministry level.

On February 10, 2020, President Jair Bolsonaro allocated R$11,287,803, just over 2 million euros, to the Brazilian Ministry of Defense to fight COVID. This was probably the political measure against COVID.

At the end of February, a 61-year-old Brazilian businessman from São Paulo who had returned from a stay in Italy became the first confirmed case of coronavirus infection in South America. By Feb. 28, health authorities in Brazil counted about 300 suspected cases. Brazilian Health Minister at the time, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, said they were preparing for an epidemic, but were prepared based on experience with previous severe respiratory disease epidemics, even though they did not yet know much specifically about this new virus. Mandetta was released on April 16, 2020.

March 2020

While Brazil's President Bolsonaro had long dismissed the pandemic as an invention of the media and commented derisively, it became known on 13 March that he might have contracted the virus himself via his communications secretary Fábio Wajngarten during a state visit to US President Trump. Bolsonaro then appeared on television wearing a protective mask during a speech and initially called for measures to protect the population from the corona virus.

However, he later downplayed the virus again, calling it a "fantasy" and a media-fuelled "hysteria". He rejected strict containment measures against the virus as of the end of March 2020; instead, he launched a "Brazil Must Not Stand Still" campaign, recommending that the population violate exit restrictions, against the advice of health authorities. As a result, a court ruled that he had to stop the campaign. In addition, the court forced the government to officially declare within 24 hours that the campaign did not meet scientific criteria and prohibited it from disseminating scientifically unsound information or using it for agitative purposes. Twitter deleted two tweets in which Bolsonaro had questioned the point of isolation measures, saying they contradicted what health authorities had said and could encourage the spread of the virus, and Facebook also responded by deleting a video. Another court invalidated a decree issued by Bolsonaro that allowed churches to open despite exit restrictions. On March 31, however, the president declared in his fourth televised address to the people, "The virus is a reality. We are facing one of the greatest challenges of our generation." A day later, however, he again attacked his health minister, who advocates strict isolation measures, and announced on the radio that he could also order the restoration of normality by decree.

On 15 March, Health Minister Mandetta saw a widespread outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic as imminent in Brazil as well. By 17 March, Brazilian authorities were already aware of 120 cases and about 1,400 suspected cases in 13 Brazilian states.

The Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária, Brazil's National Health Surveillance Agency, approved eight rapid test procedures on March 19, 2020, which are expected to take 15 minutes to seven days to evaluate. Scientists had already announced on 6 March that they had succeeded in cultivating the virus in the laboratory.

As of 22 March 2020, all states were affected. As of 23 March 2020, entry into Brazil from COVID risk areas, including the EU including Germany, was prohibited. For domestic air traffic, Brazilian airlines have negotiated a provisional emergency flight plan with the aviation authority Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil (ANAC), which ensures that the capitals of all 26 federal states and 19 other important cities are initially supplied with regular flight connections until the end of April.

The 20 or so high-ranking Brazilian politicians sickened by COVID-19 by the end of March include Senate President Davi Alcolumbre, Mines and Energy Minister Admiral Bento Albuquerque, Senators Nelson Trad Filho (Mato Grosso do Sul) and Prisco Bezerra (Ceará), federal deputy and evangelical pastor Eurico da Silva, and Bolsonaro's personal communications secretary Fábio Wajngarten.

On March 31, 2020, 500,000 rapid test kits from Chinese company Wondfo arrived in São Paulo, donated by mining major Vale. Vale promised another 4.5 million rapid test kits.

On the same day, Health Minister Mandetta announced that the government will set up a monitoring system for Brazilians that will reach approximately 125 million people. The platform, based on artificial intelligence, will contact Brazilians who are in the government's database and obtain information about their health status. "The amount of this information will be used so that we can predict who is at risk, where they are, and this should be a great tool for managing people," the minister informed. The government released the data on the advance of Covid-19 at a press conference at the Planalto Palace, which was attended by the newly appointed Chief of Staff (Casa Civil) Walter Braga Netto, Minister of Economy Paulo Guedes, Minister of Health Luiz Henrique Mandetta and Minister of Justice and Public Security Sergio Moro.

April 2020

On April 2, 2020, it was announced that a presidential decree (Medida Provisória) would provide R$9.4 billion, the equivalent of about 1.652 billion euros, to the states in proportion to their population, as well as to municipalities.

The ten-thousand mark was crossed on April 4, 2020, and the number of suspected cases remains undisclosed by officials.

The Ministry of Health announced on April 7, 2020, that it had distributed to the states 53.1 million units of infection control clothing for health care workers, including 15.8 million masks, 23.9 million pairs of gloves, 12.4 million sneakers and caps, 742,000 aprons, 60,000 pairs of protective goggles, in addition to 183,000 units of disinfectant gel.

On 8 April 2020, seven confirmed cases were reported among indigenous Yanomamis in the state of Roraima, and the following day a 15-year-old Yanomani died in hospital. Six COVID-19 deaths were reported from one of the largest favelas in Rio de Janeiro, the district of Rocinha, on 8 April 2020.

The NGO Open Knowledge Brasil published an assessment of federal and state information policies on April 9, 2020; seven states were opaque on a scale of 0 to 100; six, including the Federal District, had low-rated information policies on the coronavirus; nine, including the federal government, were rated medium; and five were rated good, including the states of Ceará, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo, which were heavily affected by the pandemic. The state of Pernambuco scored best, with high transparency and credibility.

On 10 April 2020 it was published that so far only 296 tests had been carried out per million inhabitants. On 13 April, the Reuters news agency reported that the number of Corona cases may be 12 times higher than the official figures. A consortium of Brazilian researchers at universities and institutes had compared the April 10 data with those of the World Health Organization in terms of mortality. Some 63,000 tests had been evaluated, 93,000 not yet, it said. The Reuters report supports earlier reports, such as by Edmar Santos, Rio de Janeiro's health secretary, who on March 31, 2020, estimated an unreported rate of 50 to 100 unreported cases per confirmed case for his state and noted a high number of people between 30 and 39 years old, The Guardian also expressed doubts about the accuracy of official figures on March 4, 2020.

On 16 April 2020, President Bolsonaro removed Health Minister Mandetta from office due to ongoing disagreements, as the minister had advocated a strict course with extensive contact blocks. He was succeeded on the same day by Nelson Pond.

The 50,000 mark, moreover, with over 3300 deaths was crossed on April 24, 2020, making Brazil 11th in the world in terms of country statistics.

In the state of Santa Catarina, schools are to remain closed until the end of May. A mask obligation is valid here since 18 April 2020, on 23 April 2020 the city prefect of Rio de Janeiro followed suit, as well as the cities Duque de Caxias, Magé and Niterói of the metropolitan region Rio de Janeiro. From Manaus, capital of the state of Amazonas, the increasing collapse of the health and funeral services is reported.

On April 29, the government announced that foreign nationals would be banned from entering Brazil for another 30 days, until at least the end of May.

May 2020

On May 15, 2020, the 200,000 mark of infected people was passed with about 14,000 dead. On the same day, Health Minister Nelson Teich resigned after less than a month in office, refusing to relax regulations on the use of chloroquine to allow Corona patients to be treated with the drug (which is ineffective against SARS-CoV-2) in the face of Jair Bolsonaro. On May 21, for the first time, nearly 20,000 new infections were counted within one day. The Ministry of Health in Brasília reported 19,951 new Corona infections and 888 deaths within 24 hours.

As of May 25, 2020, six governors have been diagnosed with COVID-19: Renato Casagrande (Espírito Santo), Paulo Câmara (Pernambuco), Antonio Denarium (Roraima), Wilson Witzel (Rio de Janeiro), Helder Barbalho (Pará) and Renan Filho (Alagoas).

June 2020

As of June 1, 2020, the 500,000 mark of infected and close to 30,000 dead had been surpassed. Since May 15, renewed on June 2, 2020, the Ministry of Health has been provisionally led by non-specialist military figure Eduardo Pazuello. After the Health Ministry stopped publishing the total number of infected people on the internet since the beginning of June, the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court ordered the Health Ministry not to withhold any information.

July 2020

On July 1, 2020, Brazil's Chamber of Deputies, through a constitutional amendment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, allowed the postponement of Brazil's 2020 municipal elections to November 15, 2020 (runoff November 29, 2020), in which 5570 mayors and deputies and about 57,000 city councilors each will be elected.

As of July 2, Brazil reported more 1.5 million registered infected people.

On July 7, 2020, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tested positive for COVID-19. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Bolsonaro had downplayed the health consequences of contracting the disease. In the days leading up to the illness, he had increasingly appeared in public and in crowds without a mask and keeping his distance. Another four ministers from Bolsonaro's cabinet tested positive for COVID-19 a few days later: Augusto Heleno, head of the institutional security cabinet; Bento Albuquerque, minister of energy; Onyx Lorenzoni, minister of social affairs; and Milton Ribeiro, minister of education.

January 2021

On January 7, 2021, the 200,000 death mark was surpassed, and the number of infected Brazilians is reported to be 8 million. In January 2021, the number of cases of a mutated COVID-19 variant ("P.1") in Manaus has increased noticeably and oxygen has become scarce.

March / April 2021

In March 2021, the pandemic in Brazil spiralled out of control following a sharp rise in the number of infections and deaths. Hospitals are completely overloaded as a result of the high number of patients. In addition, there is a lack of oxygen and medication for ventilation, which means that many illnesses not caused by the pandemic are also fatal. Since March 11, 2021, more than 2000 people die daily from or with COVID-19 (see #Statistics). There are long queues outside many hospitals; infected people are also dying there. On 23 March 2021, the number of deaths exceeded the threshold of 3000 within 24 hours for the first time, at 3251; this had previously only occurred in the USA. In total, more than 66,500 people died of COVID-19 in this month; the highest daily figure was reached on 31 March with 3869 deaths. At the same time, the number of younger people affected by the pandemic continued to rise. More than half of the people treated in intensive care units in March were under 40 years of age.

On April 6, 2021, the death toll rose above 4,000 within 24 hours for the first time, at 4,195. At that point, hundreds of people were dying daily while waiting for medical treatment or oxygen. In parallel, President Jair Bolsonaro continues to strongly oppose the introduction of a lockdown. According to infectiologist David Sufiate, people between the ages of 40 and 60 are particularly affected in Rio de Janeiro, while many of those over 80 are protected from severe courses by the vaccination that has taken place. In the intensive care unit of the Fiocruz Hospital in Rio de Janeiro, led by Sufiate, 90% of patients were found to have variant P.1 in early April 2021. In addition, he criticized the fact that no lockdown would be enacted. For example, the city of Araraquara, unlike the rest of the country, has imposed a lockdown and has thus been able to significantly reduce the number of patients and deaths.

In early April 2021, the Supreme Court ordered the Senate to investigate President Bolsonaro's handling of the pandemic. The president of the Senate agreed to the investigation.

In mid-April, several hospitals ran out of medicines, while in others supplies dwindled to just a few days' supply. Among other things, this affected sedatives, so that in some cases people had to be intubated without anesthesia while still conscious. Previously, doctors had sometimes tried to stretch scarce drugs. In the state of São Paulo, according to an incendiary letter from doctors, 68 percent of public health centers lacked nerve block drugs for intubation at that time, and 61 percent of clinics were out of anesthetics. At that time, there were more than 365,000 deaths in Brazil, with 13.75 million people infected. Doctors Without Borders called the situation in Brazil a "humanitarian catastrophe" and criticized in particular the lack of political will of the government to respond adequately to the pandemic. This was therefore "responsible for the death of thousands of Brazilians".

By the end of April, the death toll had risen to more than 400,000. In that month alone, more than 80,000 people died from the virus.

June 2021

In June 2021, the number of deaths was more than 2000 per day after an intermittent decline after the spring, and the number of cases rose again at that time.

Other aspects

Religious conflicts

Dom Odilo Scherer, Archbishop of São Paulo, had initially defended that churches should not be closed, arguing that there should be more daily services. Later he decided to suspend the celebrations with the people.

Edir Macedo, media entrepreneur and founder of the neo-charismatic "Universal Church of the Kingdom of God", has also defended that services should not be suspended, as has Silas Malafaia, leader of the "Assembleia de Deus Vitória em Cristo". Malafaia said he would only close his churches if ordered by a court. Macedo has caused major controversy after dismissing the coronavirus as a creation of the media.

Environmental and climate protection

In the wake of the crisis, the destruction of the Brazilian rainforest increased sharply, by 55% in the first 4 months of 2020 compared to the same period last year. A total of about 1200 km² area was deforested between January and April 2020. The cause is said to be that illegal logging continues, while authorities are constrained in their work by the crisis. One study found that clearing activities could increase Brazilian carbon dioxide emissions by 10-20% in 2020, instead of falling as in many other countries due to reduced industrial production. In May 2020, another 829 km² were added. Estimates suggest that by July, some 12,000 km² of rainforest could have been cleared within a year.

In May 2020, a Supreme Court decision made public a video in which Environment Secretary Ricardo de Aquino Salles advocated using the Corona crisis to abolish environmental regulations. According to the video, he said, "We have to make an effort while we're in this quiet moment in the press coverage because they're just talking about COVID, and enforce and change all the rules and simplify the standards." In addition, Salles complained that there were legal difficulties with the proposed bills and that they would require legal "artillery" for implementation. Likewise, Congress would be bypassed because the administration would not be able to get these bills through Congress. Environmental organizations said the remarks showed that the Bolsonaro government wanted to systematically abolish environmental protection laws. Bolsonaro had previously spoken out in favour of the (economic) development of the Amazon.

Tourism

The United States government announced entry bans on flights from Brazil on May 24, 2020. Brazil had 347,000 known COVID-19 cases at the time and had reported 22,013 deaths. It ranked second in infection cases, surpassed only by the United States itself. The entry restrictions on non-Americans were to go into effect around noon on May 28.