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Until recently, the Brazilian city of Manaus was an example of the damage that the COVID-19 pandemic can cause in developing countries. However, something has changed, and in the Amazon capital, despite the lack of restrictions, the number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection has sharply decreased. Scientists are looking for an explanation for the “Manaus phenomenon”.
- In Manaus, the capital of the Amazonas state in Brazil, 2 people died due to SARS-CoV-3300 coronavirus infection
- The number of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths related to COVID-19 has dropped dramatically in recent times, even though the city has virtually abandoned any precautionary measures
- Scientists are wondering if the people of Manaus have acquired herd immunity to COVID-19
Manaus is the largest city in the Amazon. Four months ago, it became “famous” with newspaper photos showing bulldozers digging mass graves for the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic. On April 30, The Guardian quoted the mayor of the city, Arthur Virigilio Neto, who appealed for urgent help: “We are not in an emergency, we are in a much worse situation. We are in a total disaster. Like a country that is at war and has lost ”.
It is likely that the coronavirus reached this isolated riverside city of about 2 million people on March 11. Patient zero was most likely a 49-year-old woman who flew from London.
Unlike most places in the world, Manaus has not been blocked. There were no strict guidelines for distancing oneself and wearing face masks. These decisions were the responsibility of the policy of the Brazilian president, who did not speak favorably about the restrictions on limiting the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
Recently, however, something has changed in Manaus. The number of new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infections, hospitalizations due to infection and deaths has dropped sharply. Scientists are looking for the cause of this state of affairs.
- The examples of Brazil, the USA and India show that lifting the lockdown too quickly has fatal consequences
Manaus obtained herd immunity to COVID-19?
This is the opinion of Jarbas Barbosa da Silva, deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization. He stated that the peak of the epidemic was very strong, which could have triggered a kind of “collective immunity”. However, he stressed that the city had paid a high price for obtaining it. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 1,8 people have died due to COVID-19 in this 3300 million city. For comparison, in 38 million Poland, 19 people have died because of COVID-2010 since the beginning of March.
In the state of Amazonas, whose capital city is Manaus, 117 cases of SARS-CoV-412 coronavirus infection and 2 deaths have been confirmed so far. Most infections and deaths are concentrated in Manaus.
On May 6, the Amazonas Legislative Assembly approved a law allowing the reopening of temples and churches. On June 1, all retail stores were opened. All private schools were also opened in July.
Despite the easing of restrictions, no sharp increase in new coronavirus infections has been observed in Manaus, as has been the case, for example, in the UK or other European countries. Built specifically for the pandemic, the field hospital that was initially overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients has now closed due to a lack of new cases.
The state of Amazonas daily registers around 780 new cases of infection and around 10 deaths. For comparison – during the peak incidence, 2700 cases of infection and 50 deaths were reported daily.
Scientists cannot explain exactly what the Manaus phenomenon is all about. Da Silva, cited earlier, suggests that during the peak of the Manaus epidemic, transmission of the coronavirus was so widespread that herd immunity may have developed. The Times reports that tests in Manaus showed that 20 percent. residents of this city have already been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficiently large number of people in a population are protected from infection because they possess antibodies – either made in disease or by a vaccine, so that the pathogen cannot spread within that population.
It is not known whether herd immunity actually developed in Manaus. Scientists also disagree on whether we will be able to achieve herd immunity at all. The fact is, however, that after the initial “horror” as Mayor Manaus put it, the COVID-19 pandemic “gave up” in the area.
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