Nelson Teich, the Minister of Health, said on Wednesday (22) that the country can't survive more than a year with all economic activity suspended and said there is a plan to exit social isolation.
The minister cited the concept that 70% of the population needs to come into contact with the virus for the community to acquire immunity, explaining that "we may not even reach that number before the vaccine," he reported.
"If you do not have an explosive growth of the disease, which is not happening in Brazil, we may not even reach that number," he said.
"A country can't survive a year, a year and a half stopped. An exit program must accompany social distancing ", he added. The minister defended that the ministry's work should be focused on three axes: information, infrastructure, and, thirdly, a guideline for states and municipalities to create policies concerning isolation and distance.
He expressed concern about impacts on other diseases, such as cancer care and cardiovascular diseases, whose patients don't look for hospitals amid the crisis, he said.
He also went on to say that impacts on the economy can have repercussions on health. "If we have unemployment and a significant loss in supplementary health, this will overload SUS," he said.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon