Home ›› 18 May 2020 ›› World Biz
Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo's health system could collapse as demand grows for emergency beds to deal with Covid-19 cases, said the city mayor.
Bruno Covas, the mayor of Sao Paulo, said the city's public hospitals had reached 90% capacity and could run out of space in two weeks.
Sao Paulo has a population of about 12 million, and official figures show that the majority of residents have been flouting social distancing rules, bringing the death toll of the city to 3000, so far.
On Saturday, Brazil overtook Spain and Italy to become the nation with the fourth largest number of infections.
As many as 7,938 new cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total above 241,000. Only the US, Russia and the UK have higher numbers, the health ministry reported.
Due to a lack of testing, Health experts in Brazil have warned that the real number of confirmed infections in the country may be far higher than the official records.
The death toll in the Latin American nation has reached to 16,118 - the world's fifth-highest figure.
President criticised for defying social distancing orders
Meanwhile, Brazil's far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has been strongly criticised both at home and abroad for his defiance of global health advice on social distancing, posing for photographs with supporters and children in the capital, Brasília.
(Source: BBC)
