Brazil Looking Like the Next Virus Hot Spot

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil is emerging as the next big hot spot for the coronavirus despite President Jair Bolsonaro's insistence that it is just a "little flu" and that there is no need for the sharp restrictions that have slowed the infection's spread in Europe and elsewhere.

As some U.S. states and European countries moved gradually Monday to ease their limits on movement and commerce, the intensifying outbreak in Brazil — Latin America's biggest country, with 211 million people — pushed some hospitals to the breaking point, with signs that a growing number of victims are dying at home.

"We have all the conditions here for the pandemic to become much more serious," said Paulo Brandão, a virologist at the University of São Paulo.

Brazil officially reported about 4,500 deaths and almost 67,000 confirmed infections. But the true numbers there, as in many other countries, are believed to be vastly higher given the lack of testing and the many people without severe symptoms who haven't sought hospital care. Recent reports indicate that indigenous villages in the remote Amazon jungle are being devastated by the virus. Bolsonaro has shown outright contempt for Brazil’s indigenous people since he took office on Jan. 1, 2019.

Some scientists said more than 1 million in Brazil are probably infected. The country is heading into winter, which can worsen respiratory illnesses.

Worldwide, the death toll topped 210,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of dead in the United States. surpassed 56,800 — close to the 58,000 U.S. troops who died in the Vietnam War. Italy, Britain, Spain and France accounted for more than 20,000 deaths each.

Bolsonaro has disputed the seriousness of the coronavirus and said people need to resume their lives to prevent an economic meltdown. But most state governors in the country have adopted restrictions to slow the spread and pushed people to stay at home.

In mid-April, Bolsonaro fired his popular health minister after a series of disagreements over efforts to contain the virus, replacing him with an advocate for reopening the economy. Residents protested, leaning out their windows to bang pots and pans.

Medical officials in Rio de Janeiro and at least four other major cities have warned that their hospital systems are on the verge of collapse or too overwhelmed to take any more patients.

Officials in São Paulo — the largest city in South America, a tightly packed metropolitan area of more than 21 million residents, many living in poverty — have issued death certificates in the past two weeks for 236 people who died at home, double the number before the outbreak, according to the SAMU paramedic service.

Manaus, an Amazon city of 1.8 million, recorded 142 deaths on Sunday, the most yet, including 41 who died at home. In the main cemetery, workers have been digging mass graves. Brazil's funeral industry warned last week that the city was running out of coffins and "there could soon be corpses left on corners."

In the United States, the governors of Nevada and Colorado said their states will join California, Oregon and Washington state in coordinating their reopenings. The governors of all five states are Democrats.

In Georgia, where Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has let businesses reopen, restaurants received the go-ahead to resume dine-in service as long as they follow certain restrictions, including keeping tables 6 feet apart.

At Plucked Up Chicken & Biscuits in Columbus, Georgia, eight regulars showed up in the morning to have coffee and breakfast and "chatted at each other across the room," manager Alesha Webster said. But only 10 customers could be inside at a time, well below the capacity of 45.

Alex Brounstein, owner of the Atlanta-based chain Grindhouse Killer Burgers, had no plans to reopen right away. "You're talking about people putting their mouths on things in your restaurant. You now have dirty dishes going back into your kitchen. To me, it's just completely illogical," he said.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday outlined a slow reopening, allowing restaurants, retailers, movie theaters and malls to start letting customers trickle in starting Friday. The state has one of the world's largest economies.

Technology is likely to play an important role in helping countries ease their restrictions. Many countries, including Italy, France, Switzerland and Britain, are working on virus-tracking apps and other means of reducing the labor-intensive task of tracing infected people's contacts.

In Australia, with about 80 Covid-19 deaths, 1.9 million of the country's 26 million people downloaded a new contact-tracing app within 12 hours of its becoming available.

By DAVID BILLER, MARCELO DE SOUSA and ADAM GELLER

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