Brazil is buckling under a second COVID-19 wave. And this time, the victims are getting younger
By North America correspondent
Barbara Miller and Alexandre Rampazzo in São Paulo, Brazil
Posted 5h
Fabricio tried to ride out COVID-19 by taking azithromycin, but his symptoms worsened. ( ABC News: Luiz Rampazzo )
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Even with the coronavirus surging across Brazil, Fabricio Silva Costa never thought he would get COVID-19.
Key points:
- Many of Brazil's ICU wards are at 90 per cent or above capacity
- Sharp increase of patients under the age of 60 is thought in part to be due to the spread of the Brazil COVID-19 variant
- The country is now belatedly trying to increase its vaccine supplies
"Never, never, never," he said.
"I always considered myself very strong."
Since the start of the pandemic, 13 million people in Brazil have contracted the coronavirus, but the 44-year-old insurance broker thought he was doing everything right.
"I do jiujitsu, but I took all the precautions," he tells the ABC from his hospital bed.
"I stopped training to avoid contact, I worked from home, I stopped my social life."
Then the father of three's wife contracted the virus, but didn't have many symptoms.
When Mr Costa too came down with COVID-19 he thought he could ride it out.
He started self-medicating with azithromycin, an antibiotic Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro last year said he was taking in conjunction
with the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to cure his bout of coronavirus.
It didn't help Mr Costa either and the insurance broker soon found himself so weak he thought he might die.
He rushed to the Pedro Dell'Antonia field hospital, which used to be a sports gymnasium, on the outskirts of São Paulo, Brazil's largest city.
The Pedro Dell'Antonia field hospital in Sao Paulo is operating at 85 per cent capacity. ( ABC News: Luiz Rampazzo )
"I was very horrified," he said.
"I didn't think it was like that, but there are a lot of sick people. A lot of sick people."
The Pedro Dell'Antonia is currently operating at 85 per cent capacity, with 160 patients. All of its 20-odd ICU beds are full.
More younger COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital
It's a pattern playing out across the country, where many ICU wards are at 90 per cent or above capacity. And
the situation is only growing more dire.
"This hospital was set up to function temporarily, for a short time," said Jerry Fonseca, who heads up the nursing team at the hospital.
"But the reality that we are living here right now is totally different".
Nurse Jerry Fonseca says all the staff at the makeshift hospital in Sao Paulo are exhausted as they battle Brazil's latest wave of COVID-19. ( ABC News: Luiz Rampazzo )
Mr Fonseca says all the staff are suffering from exhaustion.
"For the nurses, who deal directly with the patients, exhaustion is surreal," he said.
What has become an increasing concern is the shift in the patient profile.
When the Pedro Dell'Antonia was set up in July last year, the average age of those admitted was 65. Now doctors put it at around 37 years old.
Many of the younger patients can survive longer in intensive care, which can lead to positive outcomes. But it has also put more pressure on the country's already dangerously stretched critical supplies.
"The amount of medication for intubation is decreasing, but the number of patients who need intubation is increasing," Mr Fonseca said.
"It's a mismatch."
The sharp increase across Brazil of patients under the age of 60 is thought in part to be due to
the spread of the Brazil variant of the virus known as P.1, which has seen infections and deaths surge to record levels.
This past week the country notched up its
highest number of deaths in a day so far — 3,869 on March 31.
Brazilians aged in their 20s to 50s have increasingly been infected by COVID-19 in the last few months. ( ABC News: Luiz Rampazzo )
Daily deaths in Brazil now account for a quarter of all global COVID-19 fatalities. Infections too are going up.
Values shown are 6-day averages.
March 25 saw the highest number of new cases so far in one day at 100,158.
Bolsonaro more interested in fighting lockdowns than COVID-19
As well as spruiking scientifically debunked treatments,
Mr Bolsonaro has described COVID-19 as "a little flu", tried to challenge regional lockdowns in court and has so far refused to be vaccinated himself.
The Brazil coronavirus variant appears more contagious and may evade immunity provided by past infection, scientists say.( ABC News: Luiz Rampazzo )
Dr Mauricio Nogueira, a professor of Infectious Diseases in the city of São José do Rio Preto in São Paulo state, described the combination of the country's COVID-19-sceptical strongman and the rise of the P.1 variant as "the perfect storm".
"Our leaders deny the necessity of social distance, they deny the magnitude of the outbreak," he said.
"And at some point, they decided last year that they don't need at that time to buy enough vaccines.
"So what happened is that when we got our second wave that we are having right now, we have a large number of population that are completely unprotected."
But Dr Nogueira says what's worse is many people "don't believe in the correct way to avoid the disease, because our leaders are not playing the right cards".
That's despite the fact that at the Hospital de Base where Dr Nogueira works, in São José do Rio Preto, all the ICU beds are full.
"We have 155 people in ICU and people still don't believe," he said.
"It's insane."
Only around 2 per cent of Brazil's population of 211 million is fully vaccinated.
The country is now belatedly trying to increase its vaccine supplies, including exploring whether it can strike a deal to import excess supplies from the United States, but for many Brazilians it's too late.
Adriana Sandra Santana's sister didn't believe COVID-19 was that big a deal, until she caught it and died.
"One day, she called me and said she had the flu, but she was going to get better soon," Ms Santana said.
It was the last time the sisters spoke.
Now the single mum said she tells people to take the virus seriously.
"Because I lost my sister, a very dear person, to the pandemic," she said.
"And it's not just me, thousands of people are losing their loved ones."
Amid worsening economic crisis, many rely on food handouts
The economic fallout of COVID-19 is also hitting hard.
Unemployment has risen to 14 per cent, and Mr Bolsonaro said that posed as big a risk to the country as the virus.
"We have two enemies, the virus and unemployment," the President said last week.
Advocating for people to go back to work, Mr Bolsonaro said, "hunger kills much more than the virus itself".
"We are not going to solve this problem by staying at home."
Ms Santana has lost her job as a home carer as a result of the pandemic.
Adriana lost her job due to the pandemic, and is reliant on charity handouts or community support to feed her kids. ( ABC News: Luiz Rampazzo )
Like many other residents of the Paraisópolis favela, the city's largest slum, she's totally reliant on food handouts to feed her children.
"It has helped a lot," she said.
"But we need more support because it is a very difficult time, most mothers are unemployed."
More than 330,000 people have died after contracting COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, second only in number to the US.
It's death and mourning on an industrial scale.
At Latin America's biggest cemetery Vila Formosa, in São Paulo's east, the gravediggers are struggling to keep up.
Old plots are being dug up at all hours to make way for fresh graves, and funerals are held in brutally quick succession until well into the night.
Fabricio Costa has escaped that fate and appears to be on the mend.
"What counts for me now is to go back to being the man of the house," he said, choking up.
"What gives me strength is that."
