In August, Brazil’s is edging ever closer to hitting 100,000 coronavirus deaths. That number is projected to double by October if more stringent action is not taken soon.
Domingos Alves, coordinator of the Health Intelligence Lab at the University of Sao Paulo’s Ribeirao Preto medical school, is so far unimpressed President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic.
More than 2 million Brazilians have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and the death toll has passed 98,000. More than 600 of Brazil’s death have been from the country’s Indigenous community.
“If current trends continue, we should reach (200,000 deaths) on October 15 or 16. But I’m afraid it could be even earlier, because the infection and fatality curves are likely to accelerate in the coming weeks,” Alves said to AFP. “If things go on like this, we’ll have a high level of daily deaths until there’s a vaccine.”
Alves says that although the country is testing for the virus, Brazil is still one of the countries testing the least across the globe.
He accuses the government of treating the deadly virus as a “little flu,” and of “sacrificing the Brazilian people” to keep the economy afloat.
Bolsonaro has been criticized over recent months for not being proactive enough in the fight against COVID-19, even reprimanding Brazilian governors for imposing restrictions to slow the spread of the virus.
“Our life has to go on. Jobs should be maintained,” he said during a televised speech in March.
This week, Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled that the Bolsonaro administration must take specific precautionary measures to protect Indigenous communities from the spread of COVID-19.
The justices ruled that health checkpoints must be placed near isolated Indigenous tribes. The government has also been ordered to establish a plan for removing outlanders, including miners, from protected areas.
