COVID-19 in Brazil

Yesterday, Kendall, from kendallishere, asked me to share a bit about the situation in Brazil. I had to think about it first, I told her, because one of the main problems we have here and that generates great insecurity is lack of information. 
Officially, 33,682 people were infected by the coronavirus and 2141 have died. But everyone suspects or knows that the numbers are much higher. Testing is scarce, our federal government doesn't seem too interested in real numbers, as it wants to end the shutdown as fast as possible, no matter what the costs in terms of human lives would be.
In our little town with a population of roughly 30,000, no cases of COVID-19 have been reported, which is rather odd, as - until late February - our town was teeming with tourists from all over the world, especially from Italy and France. An older lady, who lived about 2 km from our house, died of respiratory difficulties after a few days of high fever and intense coughing. But that was in the first days of March, before our lockdown in mid-March, so the cause of her death was never investigated. However, I must say that our population is being extremely disciplined in following the rules of social distancing. As you can see in my latest blips, the streets are empty, people are staying at home. 
However, the economic effects of the lockdown are devastating. Our entire industry relied almost exclusively on tourism, and now all the hotels and restaurants are closed. Waiters, cooks, gardeners, the ladies who cleaned the rooms - everybody was sent home. Soon after the lockdown began, we received information of families not having food to feed their children, and we (people from the middle-class who still have some resources) became active buying food and essential items and distributing them in our poorer neighborhoods. Churches are also being very active in helping. I believe that, in Arraial, nobody will have to die of hunger, if this doesn't continue for too long. No one knows how long he will be able to help. Many of my own clients have suspended payments, and we have had to make cuts in our expenses as everybody else. I am in the very lucky position that we were able to move into our own house just before this whole thing started. Not having to pay rent anymore is a huge relief.
However, things are much worse in other regions of Brazil. In the city of São Paulo, the situation in hospitals is similar to the one in New York. Overcrowded ITU's, lack of equipment, medical personnel at the brink of exhaustion. In the Amazon, people, who live mostly far away from the big cities, have no access to public health services, and last week the first natives died of COVID-19. We fear that this virus will devastate entire tribes. But the information we get is scarce, and we don't know for sure what is really going on. 
It is a really bizarre situation. On the one hand, we hear those low numbers from the government, on the other hand, we get news from small towns everywhere in Brazil where cemeteries are having difficulties to find space for the dead.
Today's blip shows one of the few restaurants that tries do keep going with delivery. I thought the name of the restaurant was rather ironic.

(Update: I just read that COVID-19 has probably already killed more than 15,000 in Brazil.)