Covid-19 – The availability of icu beds in Brazil during the onset of pandemic

Abstract

Background: Brazil faces some challenges in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, including: the risks for cross-infection (community infection) increase in densely populated areas; low access to health services in areas where the number of beds in intensive care units (ICUs) is scarce and poorly distributed, mainly in states with low population density. Objective: To describe and intercorrelate epidemiology and geographic data from Brazil about the number of intensive care unit (ICU) beds at the onset of COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The epidemiology and geographic data were correlated with the distribution of ICU beds (pub-lic and private health systems) and the number of beneficiaries of private health insurance using Pear-son’s Correlation Coefficient. The same data were correlated using partial correlation controlled by gross domestic product (GDP) and number of beneficiaries of private health insurance. Findings: Brazil has a large geographical area and diverse demographic and economic aspects. This diver-sity is also present in the states and the Federal District regarding the number of COVID-19 cases, deaths and case fatality rate. The effective management of severe COVID-19 patients requires ICU services, and the scenario was also dissimilar as for ICU beds and ICU beds/10,000 inhabitants for the public (SUS) and private health systems mainly at the onset of COVID-19 pandemic. The distribution of ICUs was uneven between public and private services, and most patients rely on SUS, which had the lowest number of ICU beds. In only a few states, the number of ICU beds at SUS was above 1 to 3 by 10,000 inhabitants, which is the number recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Conclusions: Brazil needed to improve the number of ICU beds units to deal with COVID-19 pandemic, mainly for the SUS showing a late involvement of government and health authorities to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.