Quarantine-weary Brazilians head to beaches despite warnings

Suellen de Souza could longer endure confinement. After six months of precautions, Brazilian nursing technician decided that Sunday would be her first day at beach since pandemic began. “This week it was very hot ... truth is I really wanted to come” to beach, said 21-year-old at Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema beach, which is technically still closed to sun-bars though few respect prohibition and authorities seldom enforce it.

Under a burning midday sun, she h difficulty finding an empty in sand as thousands crowded famed beach, which was dotted with hundreds of umbrellas and families sunning mselves. Beach-goers were packed close toger with few wearing face masks.

With tentative signs coronavirus pandemic is easing, Brazilians exhausted with quarantine measures and social distancing are increasingly relaxing precautions and flooding beaches as if pandemic were over. y are being urged to do so - and violate recommendations of health experts - by President Jair Bolsonaro, who has resisted many lockdown measures and pressed for a return to rmal life from beginning, famously calling vel coronavirus a “little flu.”

“It is like a rain that is going to reach you,” Bolsonaro said of virus on July 7, day he confirmed his own infection from which he has since recovered.

In Rio, recommendations by health experts to remain isolated are being challenged even by people like Souza, a nursing technician who worked in a field hospital for coronavirus patients.

“ coronavirus is being controlled a little more, that gave me security to go out,” she said.

same scenario is playing out in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s worst-hit state with more than 855,000 confirmed infections and 31,000 deaths. Thousands of residents took vant of long weekend to travel to coast.

“If you stay indoors for a long time, you will go crazy. I was like that. moment I found out beach was open, I decided to come,” said Josy Santos, a 26-year-old teacher who spent day in Guarujá, a seaside resort an hour from Sao Paulo.

With more than 4,100,000 confirmed infections and 126,000 deaths from virus, Brazil has second-highest totals in both figures behind only United States. In recent weeks, Latin America’s largest country has left a new case number plateau that h dragged on from almost three months and started seeing a reduction in number of new confirmed cases. But with an aver of 820 deaths per day, its numbers are still considered high by health experts.

Patricia Canto, a pulmologist at Brazil’s premier biomedical research and development lab, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, or Fiocruz, warned that if Brazilians are negligent country could see a repeat of what happened in Europe, especially Spain, where second waves of new cases were seen.

“Spain controlled pandemic, but re were new outbreaks when many young people were negligent during summer,” Canto said. If Brazil’s “population is t conscientious and continues to frequent beaches and bars without precautions, it might mirror this.”

Geraldo Teu, political scientist and coordinator of Center for Studies and Research on Democracy, said lack of coordination among levels of government in COVID-19 fight demoralized many Brazilians.

“After six months, one can stand to stay indoors seeing how re are clear guidelines for fighting virus,” said Teu.

“As re is serious policy, population is exhausted. People he out to streets when y see that ors are t complying and effort of staying home is longer worth it.”

More than 6 months after start of pandemic, Brazilians seem increasingly relaxed about taking precautions to fight virus’ spre. Some attribute this to Bolsonario’s denial rhetoric. Souza said many do t believe in taking precautions because “Bolsonaro did t believe in disease ... He did t set an example.”

But Sao Paulo Gov. Joao Doria, who clashed with Bolsonaro over quarantine measures, does t think this is necessarily case. congestion and vehicle flow on Sao Paulo’s highways this weekend exceeded that seen during Carnival in February. “We see same problem (of full beaches) in Spain, United States and England, which do t see se speeches against social distancing,” Doria told Associated Press. 

(Im Credits: AP)