São Paulo, the harsh concrete jungle in a movement of civic solidarity during COVID-19 times
São Paulo is the fourth largest city in the world (UN, 2018) when considering its metropolitan area with 21,65 million inhabitants.¹ The city proper accounts for 12.18 million, but the dynamics really happen on the metropolitan scale. Long daily commutes are a reality of many, but not for all of its inhabitants, since São Paulo is a city of multiple — and mostly contrasting — realities. The arrival of COVID-19 has emphasized these widely different realities, making them even more evident and urgent of attention as they were already before. “Não existe amor em SP” (There is no love in São Paulo) as sung by Criolo — a famous rapper — poetically conveys the brutal reality of the majority of the city. Now, this majority, made invisible, is facing the virus under very complex circumstances. But before we dive in this topic, let’s start from the beginning.
The first official case of COVID-19 in São Paulo, also the first in Brazil, was reported on February 26th. As in the following cases, the virus arrived in the country through the upper classes, businessmen and tourists, mainly coming back from stays in Italy. After the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the situation as a global pandemic, the governmental recommendation for suspicious cases or sick people was to stay home for two weeks. Yet, as there is an intimate and complex relationship between upper and lower classes in Brazil, these people would soon spread the virus to their employees in the domestic environment, who would take the virus to the peripheries of the city, where most of the lower classes live. As the virus migrates from the wealthy neighbourhoods to the poorer ones, also its impact changes, as it is now known: the mortality rate can vary up to 10 times in different neighbourhoods within the city.²
Following the chronology of the facts, in mid March, widespread community transmission of COVID-19 was already happening while official registered deaths were reported, so new measures were taken by state governors. The quarantine was issued for São Paulo on March 24th, and this meant that only essential business — such as supermarkets, pharmacies and a few more — would be open, schools and universities were closed, people were requested to practice social distancing and when possible, to stay at home. The concept of “stay at home” is hard to grasp in a reality where a considerable part of the citizens live on informal jobs, with a daily need of work to have income for subsistence. Initially, it was thought that the quarantine was helping to reduce the velocity of COVID-19 spread, but soon as the economic impacts started to be noticed and the (anti-)President Bolsonaro — in a criminal denial mode of the pandemic — started to incentivize people to go outside, we are now, in May, in a complex situation.
The spread of the virus during April has led the hospitals of metropolitan São Paulo to reach 90% of occupancy at the beginning of May.³ It is important to highlight that when speaking about the health system in Brazil, there are basically two contrasting realities: upper classes count with private health insurance and around 80% of Brazil’s population count with public healthcare. This system is called SUS (Sistema Único de Saúde, Unified Healthcare System in English) and is strong in its principles to provide access to all citizens but in the last couple of decades has been depleted of fundings to make it advance and really guarantee universal access. Smaller cities have limited capabilities and devices, so when the biggest city of the country is already dealing with COVID-19 at its limits, it is possible to visualize the current alarming situation. Since the healthcare system is country-wide, strategies have been thought, as like, transferring patients to close by cities of São Paulo, either COVID-19 patients or with other health issues. The city has also built emergency hospitals in football stadiums and convention centres to be able to work under the demand.
However, strategies to improve the healthcare system will not be enough, as citizens of São Paulo are not practicing social distancing or staying at home in the expected levels to contain the spread of the virus. It is estimated that only 48% are isolating themselves at home.⁴ Because of this, the restricted testing and the current situation of the healthcare system, the first promise to ease the quarantine has been postponed until the end of May and if these levels don’t rise up, the city hall is considering to implement a complete lockdown. A measure taken on May 11th restricts the transit of private vehicles in the city to 50% of the fleet.⁵ Also, recently, the state has issued a law for the obligatory use of masks⁶ — a personal item not much common in Brazilian streets before the pandemic. Culturally, the use of masks while sick is not common, in contrast to the collective consciousness of mask use present in Asia.
Besides restricted access to the public healthcare system, there are many citizens that don’t have access to water supply systems or sewerage. This is the reality of most of the dwellers in favelas, the existing informal settlements in Brazilian cities and others in the Global South. Most favelas are highly dense areas with small dwelling units; Paraisópolis, in São Paulo, is the densest favela in the country: 100.000 people live in about 2 square kilometres. In their case, each house has around 5 residents.⁷ Usually, most favelas’ houses range from only one up to three rooms. This urban condition makes the presence of the virus a huge threat, since it is impossible for residents to keep distance, besides the difficulties to access adequate hygiene.
In response to this reality, through collective intelligence and self-organization, many residents are creating systems of support during COVID-19 times. As reported from Paraisópolis, the residents created a program of street leaders, people that check on their neighbours, up to 50 houses each. They also trained some residents to apply first aid measures and contracted private ambulances to take patients to hospitals in an emergency.⁷ Local public schools are being used to isolate COVID-19 patients in Paraisópolis.⁸ Initiatives to provide food and basic healthcare items are coming from within and outside the favelas. There are many bottom-up projects emerging from the current situation, trying to fill the gap from governmental action and support. Companies are shifting their production line to manufacture products of basic necessity and donating essentials and funds, researchers and universities labs are developing accessible respirator machines, makers are establishing networks to provide personal protective equipments for hospitals, civic organizations and independent citizens are connecting to donate essentials to the ones most vulnerable, as well as helping the ones facing domestic violence, housing instability, or other issues. As for Criolo, the musician mentioned at the beginning of the article, he recently released an EP called “Existe Amor” (There is Love) in collaboration with Milton Nascimento, a huge reference in Brazilian music. Along with the EP, they started a crowdfunding campaign in support of civic initiatives for the current situation. Looking at citizens doing sometimes more than they can do to help others during COVID-19 times, it is possible to say that yes, maybe there is love in São Paulo.
For a post-COVID world, we can hope that a shift in how citizens engage with urban matters will happen, expecting to see active participation in policies for the transformation of spaces, both public and domestic ones. It is necessary to look for improvements in construction materials, ventilation and natural lighting, to name a few for the domestic environment; in the urban realm, it is needed more green spaces, more walkable and bike-able paths and less traffic, which would bring less air pollution and so, less respiratory problems for its population. From the different scales of government, we should start demanding actively, as a whole society, actions for real democratic access to water, sewerage system, other essential infrastructures and healthcare assistance, as well as measures to reduce the socioeconomic disparities. It is imperative to improve favelas and other urban spaces that bring danger for human health and wellbeing on a daily basis. All these actions must take into account social and environmental justice, seeking for regenerative practices. São Paulo city urgently needs to change its perception and approach to liveability, hopefully citizens will lead this call for co-creation.
Gabriela Simões Garcia is a Brazilian-Spanish architect and urbanist, currently based in Brazil. Interested in cross-disciplinarity, she has collaborated with different people on a diverse range of projects, which can be found at atraves.cc.
Endnotes
1. United Nations. The World’s Cities in 2018 — Data Booklet. 2018.
https://www.un.org/en/events/citiesday/assets/pdf/the_worlds_cities_in_2018_data_booklet.pdf (accessed 12 May 2020)
2. Agência Brasil. Risco de morrer por coronavírus varia até 10 vezes entre bairros de SP. 2020
https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/saude/noticia/2020-05/risco-de-morrer-por-coronavirus-varia-ate-10-vezes-entre-bairros-de-sp (accessed 12 May 2020)
3. G1 SP. Ocupação de leitos chega a 90% na Grande SP e governo diz que se isolamento não aumentar, haverá problema para atender pacientes. 2020.
https://g1.globo.com/sp/sao-paulo/noticia/2020/05/08/taxa-de-ocupacao-de-leitos-chega-a-90percent-na-grande-sao-paulo.ghtml (accessed 12 May 2020)
4. G1 SP. Taxa de isolamento social em SP se mantém em 47% no estado pelo quarto dia consecutivo; capital paulista vai a 48%. 2020.
https://g1.globo.com/sp/sao-paulo/noticia/2020/05/08/taxa-de-isolamento-social-em-sp-se-mantem-em-47percent-no-estado-pelo-quarto-dia-consecutivo-capital-paulista-vai-a-48percent.ghtml (accessed 12 May 2020)
5. Prefeitura de São Paulo — Secretaria Especial de Comunicação. Prefeitura retoma rodízio municipal de veículos com medidas mais restritivas. 2020.
http://www.capital.sp.gov.br/noticia/prefeitura-retoma-rodizio-municipal-de-veiculos-com-medidas-mais-restritivas (accessed 12 May 2020)
6. Agência Brasil. Uso de máscaras nas ruas de SP será obrigatório a partir de 7 de maio. 2020.
https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/saude/noticia/2020-05/uso-de-mascaras-nas-ruas-de-sp-sera-obrigatorio-partir-de-7-de-maio (accessed 12 May 2020)
7. The Intercept Brasil. WhatsApp, médicos e ambulâncias: a SAMU heroica de Paraisópolis. 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYllWZHOs5U (accessed 12 May 2020)
8. SP-Saúde. COVID-19: Escolas em Paraisópolis passam a funcionar como centros de acolhimento. 2020.
http://www.portaldenoticias.saude.sp.gov.br/covid-19-escolas-em-paraisopolis-passam-a-funcionar-como-centros-de-acolhimento/ (acessed 12 May 2020)
