Faced with the increase in cases of Covid-19 and the advancement of the Ômicron variant, neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis said, in an interview with CNN This Monday (10), that the country’s focus at this moment should be “breaking the transmission of the virus”, or, otherwise, Brazil could reach the month of March with more than 2 million daily cases of coronavirus.
The expert explained that he had access to this projection through an American institute that usually performs accurate mathematical models on estimates of the numbers of the pandemic.
“One of the most prestigious American institutes in forecasting health metric estimates released a prediction today that is jaw-dropping when you look at the numbers for Brazil. They are predicting that if we don’t do anything else, if we don’t take care of what is happening with Ômicron in Brazil, if we don’t increase the use of masks and social isolation, we can reach more than 2 million cases a day in March”, said the official. neuroscientist.
Nicolelis highlighted that the Ômicron variant is the most transmissible of the coronavirus strains recorded to date, and that the increase in infections by the variant is neither “mild” nor “mild”. The neuroscientist also warned that Brazilian authorities did not understand the seriousness of the current epidemiological situation in the country.
“This was the moment when we were thinking about how to break the transmission of the most transmissible variant of these two years of pandemic”, he said.
In the expert’s opinion, Carnival should not be held this year. “It is reckless to talk about Carnival with the sanitary conditions we are having. Just look around and see how many people are getting infected, it’s the biggest increase in recent times. We must prioritize measures that help break transmission and prevent the collapse of the health system,” said Nicolelis.
Regarding the new measure announced by the Ministry of Health that the quarantine for people with mild and moderate cases of Covid-19 will be reduced from ten to seven days, the neuroscientist considers that this is not the time to reduce the isolation of infected people at a time. of high cases.
“I think it is extremely reckless in the face of an explosion of cases,” he said. The doctor also warned of the lack of tests in Brazil, and said that there are people who spend hours in line at health posts and cannot be tested for Covid-19.
Nicolelis considered that “meven in countries where vaccination has reached better levels, there is an increase in the number of cases”, and that it is not appropriate to change the rules on the quarantine period in the face of a period of great uncertainty.
Reference: CNN Brasil
