COVID-19 hits Brazil’s interiors, experts worried about virus returning to major cities

As the deadly coronavirus continues to spread across Brazil, including the smaller towns of the country’s interior, health experts are worried about the risk of the virus returning to major cities. While calling it the ‘boomerang effect’, experts noted that the country lacks specialised medical treatment which is forcing the infected patients into larger urban centres. 

Brazil is the world’s second worst-hit country. As per reports, the experts believe the impact of a potential second wave of a new case in urban centres could further complicate attempts to reopen businesses and revive the hard-hit economy. While speaking to an international media outlet, Miguel Nicolelis, who is coordinating a coronavirus task force advising the state governments of Brazil’s northeast, said that the ‘boomerang’ of cases that will return to the capital of the country will be ‘tsunami’. 

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The deadly virus has already infected over 1.2 million people in Brazil. The virus has been reportedly spreading mostly in larger cities, however, since late May it has been spreading faster in the interior of the country. According to reports, last week the country also reported that 60 per cent of the new cases were registered in smaller cities. The Brazilian health ministry further noted that the deaths are also rising outside of the major cities. 

COVID-19 is ‘feeding off people's movement’ 

Nicolelis reportedly noted that with the virus spreading the interiors, doctors are also facing constraints as only 10 per cent of Brazil’s municipalities have intensive care units. Seriously ill patients are mostly transported to cities. Nicolelis said that the virus moves into the interior, along the highway and through community transmission, people fall ill and return to the capital to be treated. 

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A public health professor, Gonzalo Vecina also reportedly said that the disease is ‘feeding off people’s movement’. He said that the deadly virus goes to the interior with truck drivers and it also goes to the interior with people who come to the large cities to buy things. The pattern has left several health experts worried as cities like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro have reopened most of the restaurants and cafes to boost the economy. 

While some believe that the spread should have been better contained at first, others also reportedly said that one possible mitigation option is to create testing checkpoints along highways to contain the spread. Meanwhile, the Brazilian President has also been criticised globally for not adhering to international health guidelines and allowing public places to be open despite the rising cases of COVID-19 infection in the country.

(Image: AP)

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