Coronavirus

São Paulo: one coronavirus death every two minutes

são paulo 25 de Março Street, usually one of the busiest outdoor shopping centers for retailers and wholesalers in Latin America. Photo: Nelson Antoine/Shutterstock
25 de Março Street, usually one of the busiest outdoor shopping centers for retailers and wholesalers in Latin America. Photo: Nelson Antoine/Shutterstock

The state of São Paulo recorded 679 new coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours — an average of one death every two minutes and a new record since the beginning of the pandemic.

The previous record was set last week, when the state confirmed 521 deaths in a single day, an average of one death every three minutes.

Seven-day averages typically provide a more accurate picture of the virus’s progression than daily death tallies, which are subject to fluctuations. Even so, São Paulo’s seven-day average of daily deaths has reached 400, 50 percent higher than two weeks ago.

Experts warn that the entire Southeast region — Brazil’s most populous — could succumb to a health collapse within the next month. They say that if restrictive measures are not made even tougher, the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, and Espírito Santo run out of hospital beds for Covid-19 patients.

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