With 15,000-plus deaths, why did São Paulo close a field hospital?

Home to over 10 percent of the country’s population, Greater São Paulo is also Brazil’s Covid-19 epicenter. Total cases have topped 300,000, and more than 15,000 have died from the disease. If São Paulo were its country, it would have recorded higher coronavirus tallies than Germany or Russia. On June 29, São Paulo registered an average of nearly 8,000 new coronavirus cases each day. Despite this, Mayor Bruno Covas has announced the shutdown of a field hospital.

The facility in question had been set up inside the Pacaembu football stadium, on the pitch itself, and had been in operation since April 6. It was initially slated to treat patients until July 31, but a drop off in demand brought its termination forward.

Despite having a full capacity of 200 people, on the day it was closed there were only five patients admitted to the field hospital. Local health authorities transferred these people to another temporary facility across the city.

According to news website G1, 1,500 patients were admitted to the Pacaembu field hospital, and 99.8 percent survived, with the temporary facility unable to treat severe cases.

With a total cost of BRL 23 million, this works out as BRL 15,300 (USD 2,900) per patient — far higher...