World's First City To Reach Herd Immunity As Death Toll Is So High, COVID-19 Runs Out Of People To Infect

Brazil might have the world’s first city to reach herd immunity.

Researchers at the University of Sao Paulo argued that the fall in the number of deaths from COVID-19 in Manaus, the city in question, is due to collective immunity. However, they also think that the antibodies to the virus might exist for a few months only.

On Friday, the local authority laid down a 30-day ban and gatherings and parties. Shopping hours are also restricted.

In the two months of April and May, the number of Manaus citizens died of COVID-19 is so large that cemeteries are overflown and so are hospitals. There is no such thing as a full-fledged lockdown in this city and the city dwellers simply ignore social distancing advice.

In June, the number of deaths decreased drastically. Health officials think the reason here is so many people have got the virus that there are no more victims left to infect.

The researchers took to medRxiv, a site for unpublished papers, to announce their estimation that up to 66% of Manaus citizens have been infected between May and August.

According to the researchers, after analyzing donated blood with antibodies to COVID-19 and using a mathematical model to calculate the contagion levels. The infection rate leads them to believe that the city might have reached herd immunity.

In May, the city’s daily burials are 277 but in mid-September, the figure fell to only 45. On April 30, the death toll stood at 60 but in August, the number is just three deaths a day.

However, now, the death toll is rising again.

The local authorities warned citizens that they were making themselves vulnerable by ignoring wearing masks and attending large gatherings.

Arthur Virgilio – the city mayor accused President Jair Bolsonaro of overlooking the danger of the pandemic by encouraging people to go back to normal life.

According to Dr. André Patricio Almeida, infectious disease specialist at Heitor Vieira Dourado Tropical Medicine Foundation, it was mostly the wealthier and the young who caught the virus in this second wave of the pandemic. These people often display mild symptoms but infect older people who come in contact with them.

Almeida shared that while it’s sure that a short-lived immunity had been achieved, we knew too little about COVID-19 to be certain that Manaus had reached herd immunity.

Researchers at Sao Paulo University said it seemed like antibodies for COVID-19 got weakened after a few months, which might be the cause for the new wave of infection in Manaus.

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