Four and a half months after the appearance of the first Covid-19 case in Brazil, and as the death toll approaches 80,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated, on Friday July 17, that the coronavirus epidemic has reached a "plateau".
The reproduction rate of the virus, which measures the number of new people infected by each infected person, greater than 1.5 or 2 in April / May, is now between 0.5 and 1.5 in the different regions of Brazil, said WHO director of health emergencies Michael Ryan during a press conference. "Growth in Brazil is no longer exponential, it has plateaued," he said.
"In Rio de Janeiro, for example, the number of deaths has been falling for ten days", specifies Pierre Le Duff, correspondent for France 24 in Brazil.
Two million contaminations
Brazil crossed the threshold of two million contaminations to the new coronavirus on Thursday, the second highest death toll in the world behind the United States. But for WHO, this "plateau" is an opportunity for the Brazilian authorities "to postpone the disease, to suppress the transmission of the virus, to take control" of the epidemic, said Michael Ryan.
"So far, in many countries, including Brazil, the virus has (...) set the rules," he added, adding: "Once the numbers get will be stabilized, it will be possible to reduce transmission. "
The WHO official assured that Brazil "now has the possibility to do so" but that "it will have to take very sustained and concerted action to achieve it", stressing that there were "no guarantees "that the virus will reverse on its own.
President Bolsonaro, who is afflicted with coronavirus, is openly skeptical of the pandemic and opposed to protective measures against the virus. He assured that he "was going well" thanks to the molecule whose effectiveness has not been scientifically proven to date.
With AFP
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