“Mom told me what happened, what a scare!” Fran, the digital influencer, says to her aunt over a video call. Her uncle and their family’s maid contracted COVID-19 from guests, who came over for a birthday celebration. The family “spared no expense” on medical care for the uncle, who survived after 12 days in an intensive care unit. The aunt is categorical: It wasn’t the guests who infected him; she blames the maid. “You know how it is in the favela, everyone crammed in,” she says. “She brought COVID to us.” The maid dies in a run-down public hospital and is replaced by another one right after. “New maid—I have to teach her everything. How annoying,” the aunt laments. “Hahaha, I know how it is. But thank God the worst is over now,” Fran says. “Life carries on.”
An aerial view of an emergency makeshift field hospital at Pacaembu Stadium for coronavirus patients with a capacity of 200 beds in São Paulo on March 27.