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Brazil faces health systems "collapse" as country sets new COVID deaths record, report warns

10 March 2021
Dan Ackermann

Brazil is facing "overload and even collapse of health systems" because of surging COVID-19 cases, a report by the state-run Fiocruz institute warned Tuesday, as the country set a new daily coronavirus deaths record.

Driving the news: The institute said over 80% of intensive care unit beds are occupied in 25 of Brazil's 27 state capitals. In Rio de Janeiro, 93% of ICU beds are occupied and Brasília has only 3% available. The cities of Campo Grande (106%) and Porto Alegre (102%) have exceeded capacity.

  • Brazil's health ministry on Tuesday reported 1,972 more deaths from the coronavirus and 70,764 new cases.

For the record: The country has recorded the second-highest number of deaths (268,370) from the coronavirus after the U.S. (527,643), according to Johns Hopkins data.

  • It has reported the third-highest number of cases in the world — over 11.1 million since the pandemic began .

What they're saying: Fiocruz epidemiologist Jesem Orellana told AFP the "fight against COVID-19 was lost in 2020" and there's "not the slightest chance of reversing this tragic circumstance" in the first half of this year.

  • "The best we can do is hope for the miracle of mass vaccination or a radical change in the management of the pandemic," he added.
  • "Today, Brazil is a threat to humanity and an open-air laboratory where impunity in management seems to be the rule."

Of note: President Jair Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly downplayed the virus, has continued to advocate for last week said Brazilians should stop "whining" about the pandemic and leave home, despite local stay-at-home orders imposed by local authorities, per Reuters.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.