Covid-19 spreads to small towns, where patients are far from care

A report from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) shows that Covid-19 has now spread to small Brazilian towns, leaving patients far away from intensive care units. More and more people will be forced to travel long distances in order to seek treatment in large urban centers, according to the study, published on May 20. But this is not the only problem: even for those who live near hospitals, the lack of access to privately held ICU beds prevents many from receiving adequate health care. 

Fiocruz is one of Brazil’s leading references on public health issues. Its study was based on the Monitora Covid-19 database, which collects data about the pandemic in Brazil. By the end of April, all municipalities with over 500,000 people had recorded at least one death. Now, the coronavirus is rapidly making inroads in smaller towns: five percent of municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants have recorded at least one death; one-third have recorded confirmed cases of Covid-19.

The Fiocruz report highlights that the spread of the disease is “expanding uncontrollably, and it is almost certain that it will arrive in most of [Brazil’s] municipalities”. Once this happens, the volume of...