Hassan Masoud-São Paulo
Surprisingly, Brazil rose to the sixth rank globally in the number of deaths from the emerging Corona virus (Covid-19), after recording more than 12,400 deaths as of Tuesday evening, despite the first death recorded on 17 of last month.
Many of the country's cemeteries could not accommodate the large increase in the number of bodies, and the uneven handling of deaths varied according to the economic and social reality in the affected state or city.
In Manaus, the capital of the Amazon state, the most difficult scene was, as the local government was forced to open mass graves, stack coffins together, and use bulldozers to dirt dirt on graves under the gaze of their bereaved families.
Despite resorting to this solution, the city's mayor, Artur Virgilio Neto, has officially called on the city's residents to accept the idea of cremating Corona victims, given the difficulty of finding refrigerated containers to preserve the bodies, while new graves are dug.
He said that this would expose families and workers in the health and burial sectors to the risk of infection, especially in light of the great shortage of medical equipment and the collapse of the health system in the city, which has long been absent from services.
Similar collapses and hospital beds and recovery rooms are experiencing some of the northern Brazilian states known for their poverty, Pará and Ceará, where 18 cities were forced to announce a comprehensive closure to stop the spread of the virus.
In these areas, the mortality rate in homes has increased more than ever due to the inability of the ambulance teams to respond to all calls, and the latest estimates reported by the mayor of Manoos that "at least one third of deaths are recorded at home."
The state of Sao Paulo - the country's economic center - has recorded the highest number of deaths and injuries, as the sights of hundreds of pre-opened graves in the "Villa Fermosa" cemetery shocked public opinion.
Bruno Covas, Mayor of Sao Paulo, said that the state is preparing 13,000 new graves to accommodate the large numbers of dead, in addition to preparing eight refrigerated vehicles to save the bodies temporarily while they are being transferred to the graves.
The number of deaths in Sao Paulo reached more than 4000, while the local government fears that the number will rise to 10 thousand by the end of this month, which prompted it to extend the quarantine to that date.
"The work in the cemetery does not stop. The number of dead people we bury daily has increased dramatically, and we live the risk of infection at any time during our work," said the worker at the Villa Fermosa Cemetery, Adelson Wilson, for Al Jazeera Net.
As for the state of Rio de Janeiro, with the number of beds in the recovery rooms in its hospitals and the high number of deaths in them, its inhabitants live a difficult reality in finding graves for their victims.
In a statement to a Brazilian media, Raquel Caverizan - a relative of the victim Thales Salis, who died at the age of 44 due to Corona - said that "finding a grave for her relative required two days in the absence of space in the refrigerator in the health center in San Miguel."
Between fear and skepticism,
the political division has been reflected in dealing with the crisis of the spread of Corona on the street as well, as Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was accused by his opponents of underestimating the victims of the virus.
After being asked about the number of victims exceeding that recorded in China at the end of last month, he replied, "What does that mean? What do you want me to do?", Adding, "It is true that my name is Christ, but I cannot do miracles."
On the 20th of last month, he also answered a question about the high death toll by saying "I am not a worker in a cemetery to know", which increased the anger towards him.
The controversy intensified after Brazil passed 10 thousand deaths, prompting the House, Senate and the Federal Supreme Court to announce public mourning, while the Brazilian president chose on the same day to practice hobby riding a water bike in Brasilia other than his father, but he returned the next day and declared his regret.
Meanwhile, the announcement of the mass graves open in Manaus and São Paulo by local rulers - who are classified as opponents of the Brazilian president and his policies - prompted supporters of the president to question the reality of the difficult situation of cemeteries and the health system, and published videos and photos that they said showed empty coffins that these rulers buried to spread terror among the residents and pitting Public opinion on Bolsonaro.
Twitter activist Roberto Luiz, who puts on his profile picture the slogan "Don't Spread Fear," posted a video of a person who opened an empty coffin, commenting, "The police reveal the burial of empty coffins, there are no limits to the rulers and mayors' actions during the epidemic," adding "we have to verify All deaths due to Corona. "
On the other hand, a number of false news verification pages confirmed that the video belongs to 2017, when the police already found an empty coffin in the city of Saucarlus and opened an investigation into the accident, which then proved that the burial of the coffin was for family reasons, and not related to Corona.
In this context, Eliane Lopez, an official in one of the government health centers in São Paulo, told Al Jazeera Net, "We are working in the front line to confront Corona, we were working in the health field before and after the crisis, and the truth proves that the number of deaths has become much greater, we live in a way daily".
Iliani, who contracted the virus during her work and recovered from it, adds that "doubting the numbers of deaths and the extent of the spread of corona in Brazil is politically motivated ... Unfortunately, the policy was involved in a serious health issue like this, which led to the disdain of some people and the spread of the virus more."
She stressed that "the situation is really serious, and this is clear, and the collapse of the health system in some cities and the burial of mass graves is a natural result of the unprecedented rise in demand for health centers and cemeteries."
For our part, says Luciana Azafeda, a shop owner in Sao Paulo, "We have a great fear of the virus, closed my shop for 36 days after the spread of Corona, but we could not bear more, so we had to return but taking all possible precautions."
And from her opinion regarding the virus as a "media hoax" by a part of the Brazilians, she tells Al-Jazeera Net that it has become clear that the claim of using empty coffins and amplification is false news and not the opposite. I thank God that one of them did not die. "