Sao Paulo closes main streets to aid isolation

The Sao Paulo city hall partially blocked some main avenues on Monday in an attempt to reduce the number of people breaking social isolation.

The government of Sao Paulo says that according to an Intelligent Monitor system, the social isolation in the city is only 52%, while the ideal to combat Covid-19 would be 70%.

The low rate of people in isolation worries Eurides dos Santos, who works as a waitress and needs to take two buses everyday to arrive at her job.

"The number of deaths are just getting higher and we need to do our best so all this is over soon. I think this is very important, to be isolated," she said as she waited for the bus on Monday.

Another new measure implemented by the Sao Paulo municipality is to require commuters to use masks when using public transportation, a measure that bus driver Jair da Silva says should have been implemented sooner.

"This is a good idea, but they should have started it earlier, the government does everything late," he added.

The state of Sao Paulo has the highest number of confirmed cases and deaths of COVID 19 in the country.

More than 7000 people died in Brazil due to the COVID 19, with at least 101 thousand cases confirmed by Sunday.

For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the new coronavirus can cause more severe illness and lead to death.