Nearly all Covid hospitalizations in Rio are of unvaccinated citizens

Cardoso Fontes Federal Hospital, in Rio's Jacarepaguá neighborhood. Photo: Fernando Frazão/ABr

The latest epidemiological report issued by Rio de Janeiro municipal health authorities on Friday shows that 95 percent of Covid-19 patients who required hospitalization had not taken a single coronavirus vaccine dose.

The data, which comes as the Delta variant begins to spread quickly across the country and already accounts for about half of new coronavirus infections in Rio, corroborates similar trends observed in other countries. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) defined the new phase of the sanitary crisis as the “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”

There is one major caveat to comparing Brazil to many developed countries, however. While in the U.S. an estimated 93 million people who are eligible for shots have chosen not to get them, in Brazil 94 percent of people have either taken a vaccine or are eager to get one. The issue in Brazil has always been the availability of shots. Just two weeks ago, eight state capitals briefly suspended rollouts due to a lack of vaccines.