São Luis has been quarantined as the first city in Brazil. As of Tuesday, residents of the million-city in northeastern Brazil may only leave their homes for health reasons or to buy food. The new rules will, in a first step, apply until May 14.
On Friday, Fortaleza, 90 km southeast of São Luis will also be quarantined. Fortaleza's close to three million inhabitants are quarantined for 20 days. The cities are the first in the country to be quarantined.
Preventive purposeFortaleza is the capital of Ceará, one of the worst hit states in Brazil. By contrast, the state of Maranhão, where São Luis is the capital, is relatively mildly affected by the corona virus with 249 deaths, and the new strict rules are introduced for preventive purposes.
"It is not chaos with us, but we can see that the pressure has increased rapidly and is above what the healthcare can do," says Governor Flavio Dino.
President Jair Bolsonaro has, during the entire corona pandemic, toned down the risks and previously called the country's governors' introduction of quarantines into their states "crime".
- The destruction of jobs by some governors is irresponsible and unacceptable. We will pay a high price in the future, Bolsonaro said in a Facebook broadcast speech as late as Sunday.
Nearly 8,000 deadFigures for infected and dead in Brazil continue to rise. During Tuesday, the death toll was increased by over 600, to 7,921. The official figure for the number of infected persons is 114,715.
Those numbers are in all likelihood lower than the actual numbers. Deputy Health Minister Wanderson Oliveira said on Tuesday that the results of more than 100,000 tests have not yet been registered. He also said the numbers are lagging behind and that the 600 deaths did not necessarily occur on Monday.