Covid-19: Brazil Hits Record for Covid Deaths as Hospitals Near Collapse
Published Date: 3/5/2021
Source: Bloomberg Quicktake: Now
Encouraging signs are emerging in the fight against the pandemic globally, but Brazil is battling a resurgence. The country has hit a daily record for Covid-19 deaths as hospitals verge on near collapse under a second coronavirus wave. This has been made worse by a new virus strain found in the city of Manaus in Brazil’s Amazon. Fabio Biolchini, a field coordinator with Doctors Without Borders explains from Manaus. "Manaus was the first big city in Brazil to be a victim of this big second wave that nobody was expecting to be that hard. The second wave came first to Manaus and now it's reaching the other cities in Brazil. And it's a very scary situation." Fabio says there are a lot of assumptions about the new variant. "What we do know is that the presence of this variant in the second wave was very high. Even if it's not a scientific conclusion, I think we can assume and that we have to be very careful about this new P1 variant. Whatever it is, it could be related to a higher transmission. And we can unfortunately see what we saw in Manaus in other places. There is this assumption that this big and difficult second wave in Manaus is pretty much linked with the P1 variant." Working in the hard-hit city of Manaus has been very emotional for Fabio. "It was quite shocking when I entered the hospital for the first time when I arrived in Manaus. Not only by the amount of patients that I saw, there were patients everywhere. It's very emotional and it's very hard to watch. But I think that every person that lost a family member is traumatized, of course, by their loss. But also health workers, they have seen that every day, many, many times. And they are very traumatized as well. Not only by the overload of work, the extra hours, but also by seeing so many dead bodies coming." Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2TwO8Gm Bloomberg Quicktake brings you live global news and original shows spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world. To watch complete coverage on Bloomberg Quicktake 24/7, visit http://www.bloomberg.com/qt/live, or watch on Apple TV, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, Fire TV and Android TV on the Bloomberg app. Have a story to tell? Fill out this survey for a chance to have it featured on Bloomberg Quicktake: https://cor.us/surveys/27AF30 Connect with us on… YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Bloomberg Breaking News on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BloombergQuickTakeNews Twitter: https://twitter.com/quicktake Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quicktake Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quicktake