Sao Paulo expects 100,000 COVID-19 deaths
The epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Latin America, Brazil’s Sao Paulo state, said Monday it expects 111,000 deaths within the next six months, and extended its stay-at-home measures another fourteen days. The forecast - the official projection, the state said - seems to set Brazil on the right track to become among the worst-hit countries on the globe.
The global death toll from the virus currently stands at 70,000, according to a tally published by AFP.
Sao Paulo, the teeming professional hub where in fact the new coronavirus primary appeared in Latin America, has confirmed 4,620 cases and 275 deaths up to now.
Governor Joao Doria, who closed non-fundamental businesses on March 24 and advised people to stay home, said containment actions would be needed for at least several even more weeks or the problem would get much worse.
“If we continue looking at people in the streets and gathering unnecessarily, we will go to more restrictive methods,” he told a information conference.
Police already are authorized to split up crowds by drive if necessary, he said.
Without containment methods, Sao Paulo - whose capital may be the mega-city of the same name - would register 270,000 deaths within the next six weeks, said the top of the state’s open public health analysis institute, Dimas Covas.
Brazil features been the Latin American nation strike hardest by the brand new coronavirus, with 553 deaths and more than 12,000 confirmed cases up to now.
Health experts warn under-tests means the real number is likely higher.
Sao Paulo, a state whose population of 46 million helps it be about the size as Spain, has seen more attacks and deaths than any other.
The state is probably facing another 1,300 deaths this week, Covas said.
The governor has openly clashed over containment measures with far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who claims they are needlessly wrecking the economy over an illness he has compared to a “little flu.”
