untitled design

Ordinance that ends the state of emergency for Covid-19 comes into force today (22)

The federal government ordinance that determines the end of Public Health Emergency of National Importance (Espin) in Brazil by Covid-19 enters into force this Sunday (22), after being signed by the Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga on April 22.

The Ministry of Health attributed the decision to an improvement in the epidemiological situation in Brazil, to the high vaccination coverage population and the response and assistance capacity of the Unified Health System (SUS ) to suspected and confirmed cases.

At the time, data from the folder indicated a drop of more than 80% in the moving average of cases and deaths per Covid-19 compared to the peak of cases in early 2022 generated by the Omicron variant .

Since then, however, the test positivity rate for Covid-19 started an uptrend with the seventh weekly increase in a row, according to data from the Brazilian Association of Pharmacy and Drugstore Chains (Abrafarma).

Between the 9th and 15th of May, positive results represented 26.08% of the total number of tests carried out, with 31,623 cases and an increase of 56% compared to the previous week.

The increase in the positivity rate was also recorded in the self-tests for Covid-19, at 27%, with an increase of five percentage points compared to the months of March and April.

The number of tests carried out in the last week also showed growth. While in the week of May 2 to 8, 89,236 tests were carried out in private pharmacies in the country, in the week of May 9 to 15 there were 121,272, an increase of 36%.

On the day the ordinance was signed, Marcelo Queiroga went so far as to say that “even if we have cases of Covid – because we have not ended Covid, nor have we ended the virus, the virus will continue to circulate and we have to learn to live with it, if there is a need for care in Primary Care, we are able to provide care, if there is a need for intensive care beds, we have intensive care beds”.

The ministry also presented the health surveillance actions that will be maintained after the end of the state of emergency. These include case surveillance, testing, contact monitoring, reporting, reinfection surveillance, genomic surveillance, and monitoring of multisystem inflammatory syndromes in children and adults.

Even with the end of the state of emergency, declared on February 3, 2020, the classification of Covid-19 as pandemic can only be officially amended by the World Health Organization (WHO ). The organization met in April to discuss a possible status change, but it was rejected.

Countries, on the other hand, have the autonomy to monitor epidemiological conditions at the national level and determine public policies and actions to combat the disease according to the indicators.

Also due to a more favorable epidemiological scenario, on May 12 the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) allowed the on-board services and maximum passenger capacity were resumed on domestic flights, but maintained the mandatory use of masks.

The relaxation of some measures was seen as natural by Anvisa’s collegiate, due to the improvement in the country’s epidemiological scenario.

as advanced by CNN the health agency already stated that there was “a need for gradual modulation of some normative provisions so that the measures imposed at airports and aircraft were proportionate to the current risk” of Covid-19.

Basic care helps prevent Covid-19

Source: CNN Brasil

You may also like

Get the latest

Stay Informed: Get the Latest Updates and Insights

 

Most popular