In an interview with CNN, Paulo Ziulkoski, president of the National Confederation of Municipalities (CNM), said that Brazil is on the right path to fight the pandemic, with the progress of vaccination and the inclusion of a third dose in the vaccination schedule.
The concern at the moment comes from abroad, on account of the new variant of Covid-19, Ômicron, found for the first time in South Africa.
In Brazil, big events are already happening, such as football matches with the public in the stands, and commemorative dates, such as New Year’s Eve and Carnival, are approaching, which lights up a warning sign.
“We cannot leave it to take last-minute measures and run the risk of backtracking on what we have achieved so far”, he says.
The organization’s president also says that decision-making by the federal government was very slow at the beginning of the pandemic. Now he hopes the damage already done by Covid-19 will teach authorities to take concrete steps in advance.
“We still don’t know if the vaccines that are being applied will resist this new variant of the virus and how intense it is,” he says. Ziulkoski emphasizes that this variant has not yet arrived in the country, but it is possible that it will, and this could change the plans of municipalities in relation to major events.
He says he is seeing a certain good humor and optimism among municipal managers, as if the pandemic was already over. “This worries a lot. Right now, we have to put our feet on the ground and take a lot of responsibility.”
Ziulkoski talks about the importance of exploring the Brazilian culture of acceptance of vaccination. He says that there is “no vaccine left”, on the contrary, there is still a demand to be met in the municipalities.
“We have to try to reach 80% of the population fully vaccinated and continue with surveillance on the use of masks”, he says. “Our internal situation has improved a lot, but that doesn’t mean we should let our guard down.”
At the moment, the Confederation says it is attentive to the position of the federal government to try to prevent the variant from reaching Brazil and spreading.
“How are we going to create this protection belt so that, preferably, the variant does not arrive here and, if it does, it will be delayed”, he completes.
(*Supervised by Elis Franco)
Posted by Ligia Tuon
Reference: CNN Brasil
