ICU occupancy for COVID-19 in Brazil at lowest since 2020
For the first time since October 2020, no Brazilian state has more than 80 percent of ICU beds for COVID-19 occupied in Brazil’s public hospitals. The announcement was made today (Aug. 11) by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), tasked with drafting the COVID-19 Observatory Report.
According to Fiocruz researchers, the country is facing the best moment regarding bed occupancy since the indicator started being monitored by the Observatory report team. In this week’s analysis, they once again underscore that the vaccination campaign has made a huge difference reducing severe cases of the disease, and argue that the access to inoculation should be expanded and accelerated.
They also recommend the alert continues concerning the possibility that the Delta variant may pose any setbacks to the current improving scenario. Despite the situation, “considering that the levels of viral transmission, as well as cases and deaths, are still high, it is also important to combine vaccination and the use of masks, in addition to physical distancing, in order to preserve the progress in the results leading to the control of the pandemic.”
Alert zone
When more than 80 percent of ICU beds are taken, the report says that that care for severe cases of COVID-19 is in the critical alert zone. Brazil went as far as to have 25 of the 27 states simultaneously in this situation, on March 15, when the pandemic was at its worst in the country.
In today’s report, 21 states plus the Federal District are seen out of the alert zone (COVID-19 occupancy rates below 60 percent). The intermediate alert zone (60 to 80 percent) has the five remaining Brazilian states.
