Brazil becoming coronavirus hot spot as testing falters

Cases of new medical officials in Rio de Janeiro and at least four or major cities have warned that ir hospital systems are on verge of collapse, or already too overwhelmed to take any more patients.

Health experts expect number of infections in country of 211 million people will be much higher than what has been reported because of insufficient, delayed testing.

Meanwhile, President Jair Bolsonaro has shown sign of wavering from his insistence that COVID-19 is a relatively mir disease and that broad social-distancing measures are t needed to stop it. He has said only Brazilians at high risk should be isolated.

In Manaus, biggest city in Amazon, officials said a cemetery has been forced to dig mass graves because re have been so many deaths. Workers have been burying 100 corpses a day — triple pre-virus aver of burials.

Ytalo Rodrigues, a 20-year-old driver for a funerary service provider in Manaus, said he had retrieved one body after ar for more than 36 hours, without a break. re were so many deaths, his employer had to add a second hearse, Rodrigues said.

So far, health ministry has confirmed nearly 53,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 3,600 deaths. By official counts, country had its worst day yet on Thursday, with about 3,700 new cases and more than 400 deaths, and Friday was nearly as grim.

Experts warned that paltry testing means true number of infections is far greater. And because it can take a long time for tests to be processed, current numbers actually reflect deaths that happened one or two weeks ago, said Domingos Alves, adjunct professor of social medicine at University of Sao Paulo, who is involved in project.

“We are looking at a photo of past,” Alves said in an interview last week. “ number of cases in Brazil is, refore, probably even greater than what we are predicting.”

Scientists from University of Sao Paulo, University of Brasilia and or institutions say true number of people infected with virus as of this week is probably as much as 587,000 to 1.1 million people.

health ministry said in a report earlier this month that it has capacity to test 6,700 people per day — a far cry from roughly 40,000 it will need when virus peaks.

“We should do many more tests than we’re doing, but laboratory here is working at full steam,” said Keny Colares, an infectious disease specialist at Hospital Sao Jose in rastern Ceara state who has been advising state officials on pandemic response.

Meanwhile, health care workers can barely handle cases y have.

In Rio state, all but one of seven public hospitals equipped to treat COVID-19 are full and can only accept new patients once ors have eir recovered or died, according to press office of health secretariat. sole facility with vacancy is located a two-hour drive from capital's center.

At mouth of Amazon, city of Belem’s intensive-care beds are all occupied, according to online media outlet G1. As number of cases rises in capital of Para state, its health secretary said this week that at least 200 medical staff had been infected, and it is actively seeking to hire more doctors, G1 reported.

On Saturday, city of Rio plans to open its first field hospital, with 200 beds, half reserved for intensive care. Ar hospital erected beside historic Maracana football stadium will offer 400 beds starting next month.

In Ceara's capital, Fortaleza, state officials said Friday that intensive care units for COVID-19 patients were 92% full, after reaching capacity a week ago. Health experts and officials are particularly worried about virus spreading into poorest neighborhoods, or favelas, where people depend on public health care.

Edenir Bessa, a 65-year-old retiree from Rio’s working-class Mangueira favela, sought medical attention on April 20; she was turned away from two full urgent care units before gaining admission to a third located 40 kilometers (25 miles) away.

Hours later, she was transferred by ambulance almost all way back, to Ronaldo Gazzola hospital, according to her son, Rodrigo Bessa. Still, she died overnight, and he had to enter hospital to identify her body.

“I saw a lot of bodies also suspected of (having) COVID-19 in hospital’s basement,” said Bessa, a nurse at a hospital in ar state.

hospital released Edenir’s body with a diagsis of suspected COVID-19, meaning that her death — like so many ors — doesn’t figure into government’s official tally. A small group of family members gared for her burial on Wednesday, wearing face masks.

“People need to believe that this is serious, that it kills,” Bessa said.

Bolsonaro has continued to dismiss health officials' dire predictions about virus's spread in country. Last week, president

Bolsonaro’s stance largely echoes that of his counterpart and ally U.S. President Donald

fight to reopen business “is a risk that I run,” Bolsonaro said at swearing-in of his newly appointed health minister, Nelson Teich. If pandemic escalates, Bolsonaro said, “it lands on my lap.”