Brazil struggles as COVID hospitalisations increase

Brazil is showing increasing signs that a second wave of the coronavirus is sweeping the country, with the biggest cities and areas around the Amazon being the worst affected.

In Santo André, a city in the São Paulo metropolitan area, the Dell'Antonia field hospital had seen an increase of up to 69% in recent weeks.

Dr.  Jimmy Teixeira has been working in the field hospital since it started in April.

He said it is difficult to affirm whether it is a second wave, like in some countries in Europe, or if the first one hasn't even finished, but what he can affirm is that he has seen people on the streets not taking the necessary precautions, and it reflects directly in the hospital occupancy.

"There was a decrease, a big fall. Today we see again a rise in hospitalizations, because of the flexibilization of people in general, relaxing on care and mask usage."

In Rio de Janeiro, Rosilene dos Santos buried her father, a victim of COVID-19.

"I thought I'd spend New Years Eve with my whole family, but the virus took that from me, it's real, the virus is here and it's not a joke. People have to understand that it's not a joke, it's really deadly."

On Wednesday Brazil's Health Ministry confirmed 654 new deaths in the last 24 hours, and more than 170 thousand deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

(Image Credit: AP)