Disturbing story behind haunting image from new coronavirus epicentre
Brazil’s ascent to near the top of the coronavirus death toll rankings appears to have proven so alarming, its own government has decided to pull publicly-provided data detailing its statistics since the outbreak began.
Last week, the nation dubbed the new epicentre of South America’s alarming outbreak surpassed Italy’s number of deaths moving behind only the US and UK.
Brazil now has 36,455 deaths and 672,846 confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
The death toll has doubled in less than three weeks, with the figure showing no signs of slowing down.
Haunting images reveal the measures the nation is undergoing to simply keep on top of the amount of bodies authorities are dealing with.
The rapid construction of vertical cemeteries has been ordered in badly-hit Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, with the national death toll reaching an alarming new high on June 4 with 1492 new deaths.
One image at a cemetery in Inhuama, Rio de Janeiro, shows newly built vertical cemeteries towering over a worker.
Around 13,000 vertical plots were being built at just three cemeteries in Sao Paulo state, it was confirmed last month.
Data ‘manipulation’ sparks outrage
Over the weekend Brazil’s health ministry removed the data from its official website that had documented the epidemic over time and by state and municipality.
The ministry also stopped giving a total count of confirmed cases or a total death toll.
President Jair Bolsonaro, who has been heavily criticised for his handling of the outbreak, insisted such data wasn’t portraying the current situation in the country.
"The cumulative data ... does not reflect the moment the country is in," Mr Bolsonaro said on Twitter, citing a note from the ministry. "Other actions are underway to improve the reporting of cases and confirmation of diagnoses."
Mr Bolsonaro has played down the dangers of the pandemic, replaced medical experts in the health ministry with military officials and argued against state lockdowns to fight the virus, hobbling the country's public health response.
Neither Bolsonaro nor the ministry gave a reason for erasing most of the data on the covid.saude.gov.br website, which had been a key public resource for tracking the pandemic.
The page was taken down on Friday and reloaded Saturday with a new layout and just a fraction of the data, reflecting only deaths, cases and recoveries within the last 24 hours.
The move by the government faced widespread condemnation shortly after.
“The authoritarian, insensitive, inhuman and unethical attempt to make those killed by Covid-19 invisible will not succeed. We and Brazilian society will not forget them, nor the tragedy that befalls the nation,” said Alberto Beltrame, president of Brazil’s national council of state health secretaries, in a statement.
“The manipulation of statistics is a manoeuvre of totalitarian regimes,” Gilmar Mendes, a supreme court judge said on Twitter.
“The trick will not exempt responsibility for the eventual genocide.”
Bolsonaro accused of trying to silence press
The government also drew criticism this week for pushing back the release of its daily tally, previously available around 5pm but released in recent days near 10pm.
"Transparency of information is a powerful instrument for combating the epidemic," wrote Paulo Jeronimo de Sousa, head of the Brazilian Press Association, in a note accusing the government of "trying to silence the press at this late hour."
Asked by journalists on Friday about the delayed release, Bolsonaro needled the nation's most-watched news program, Jornal Nacional, which begins at 8.30pm.
"There goes the story for Jornal Nacional," he joked, adding that the show "likes to say Brazil has the record for deaths."
Brazil reported more new cases and deaths from COVID-19 than any other country on four consecutive days last week.
Bolsonaro tweeted on Saturday that a later daily update would "avoid under notification and inconsistencies."
Brazil’s lack of testing a potential downfall
Leading epidemiologist Professor Raina MacIntyre, from the University of NSW, previously told Yahoo News Australia the amount of testing, particularly in poor, high density areas is likely to have been Brazil’s downfall.
“It is unclear how much testing has occurred and what the testing capacity and human resources capacity for contact tracing are,” she explained.
“The reported number of cases in many low-income countries may be the tip of the iceberg.
“Countries that are seeing a rising trend need to review each of the pillars of disease control and also look at urban slums in megacities. These could be hot spots for transmission, where social distancing is not possible due to crowded conditions.”
with Reuters
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