Brasilia, March 17 (RHC)-- More than half of Brazilians think that President Jair Bolsonaro's handling of the pandemic is bad or very bad.  According to the new poll published Tuesday by the Datafolha Institute 54 percent of respondents rated Bolsonaro's performance in handling the crisis caused by the new coronavirus poorly. In the previous poll, conducted in January, the negative opinion was 48 percent.

Only two out of ten respondents considered Bolsonaro's management to be good. The previous rate was 26 percent.  Another important data from the Datafolha Institute study indicates that 43 percent of those surveyed believe that Bolsonaro is the main culprit in the health crisis generated by the pandemic, which has already left more than 11 million infected and 282,000 deaths due to the coronavirus. 

The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), pointed out on Tuesday that Brazil is experiencing the "greatest health and hospital collapse in its history" and called for "urgent" measures to curb contagions.

According to the most recent bulletin, in 25 of Brazil's 27 states the occupancy rates of the Intensive Care Units (ICU) are equal to or higher than 80 percent, and in 15 regions it has already exceeded 90 percent of its capacity, an "absolutely critical" situation.

For Fiocruz, the averages of cases and deaths due to Covid-19, as well as the occupancy rates of the ICUs, point to an extremely critical situation or even collapse throughout Brazil.  Given this scenario, the foundation calls for the expansion and intensification of a set of non-pharmacological measures to curb the spread of coronavirus cases.

Among the measures called for by researchers analyzing the Covid-19 situation in Brazil are further restricting non-essential activities, expanding physical and social distancing, encouraging the use of face masks and accelerating vaccination in the country, as only about 5% of the entire population has received the first dose of the vaccine.

Brazil is the current global epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, and the second country in the world with the highest number of deaths and infections, only surpassed by the United States.

This Tuesday, the South American giant registered 2,840 deaths in 24 hours due to the coronavirus, setting a new record of deaths, bringing the number of deceased to over 282,000, while the number of confirmed cases of infection exceeds 11.6 million.