PNAD COVID19
5.9 milion did not follow social distancing measures in the first week of September
September 25, 2020 09h00 AM | Last Updated: September 28, 2020 05h01 PM
The number of people who did not take any restrictive measures to avoid being infected by the novel coronavirus rose to 5.9 million in the first week of September, reaching the highest level since the IBGE started collecting this data in early July. In the week prior to that, the figure was 5.0 million. The information is from the weekly edition of PNAD COVID19, released today (25).
Additionally, the group of people who remained strictly isolated (37.3 million) continued to decline, down 1.6 million compared to the last week of August. Since the beginning of July, this group has shown a reduction of 10.6 million people.
The majority of the population (86.4 million), however, stayed home and only went out when necessary in the first week of September. This number, however, decreased by 2.2 million compared to the week before. On the other hand, the number of people who reduced contact was increased by 3.6 million, but they kept leaving home or being visited (80.7 million).
“This behavior of the population reflects the relaxation of social distance measures, with the reopening of the economic activities. The majority of the population, however, is still taking some action against Covid-19, although less restrictive”, said survey coordinator Maria Lucia Vieira
Number of students who had school activity rises to 38 million
In the first week of September, of the 46.0 million students who were enrolled in schools and universities, 38.0 million (82.7%) had some activity, an increase of 631 thousand students in comparison with the previous week. "Despite this, we still had 7.3 million (15.8%) without any activity at all", highlights Ms. Pimenta. The others were on vacation (1.5%).
The survey also indicates that only 25 million (65.6%) had school activities for five days a week. Another 835 thousand students (2.2%) only had activities once a week.
Less than 10 million people had flu-like symptoms
The researcher also highlights the reduction of 1.4 million in the number of people who had any symptoms related to the flu syndrome in the first week of September (9.9 million), compared to the previous week (11.3 million). “It was a significant drop in this indicator. There was a reduction in all 12 symptoms surveyed”, said the specialist. At the beginning of the survey, in May, 26.8 million had reported some symptom.
Among the people who had any symptoms, 2.4 million sought medical attention in a public or private health establishment. Of this total, 670 thousand were in public private or military hospitals, and 127 thousand (18.9%) people were hospitalized
13.0 million people were unemployed at the beginning of September
In the labor market, 13.0 million people were unemployed in the first week of September, a stable result compared to the previous week (13.7 million). The unemployment rate was 13.7%.
The employed population was 82.3 million, which represents stability with a slight upward trend that has been occurring since mid-July. "This recent recovery has been happening especially among informal workers (28.5 million), who were the most affected at the beginning of the pandemic", said the survey coordinator. The informality rate was 34.6%.
Ms. Pimenta also observes that the only indicator that showed a significant change was that of the employed population that was away from work, which decreased to 5.5 million in comparison with the previous week (6.1 million). In May, when the survey begun, 20.0 million people were away from work.
