Vaccinated people should avoid travel, CDC head says

The occupancy rate of ICU beds peaked this week in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, reaching 96% occupancy on Sunday, according to data from the Health Secretary of the State.

As of Sunday, the city has 616 ICU beds dedicated to Covid-19 care.

Hospitals across the country have faced an ICU occupancy crisis as variants of the virus spread and the vaccine is slowly rolled out.

The mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, announced that new restrictive measures went into effect on Friday including people not being allowed on the street between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. local time, limited hours of operation for bars and restaurants and a ban on events or parties in public and private areas, among others.

The mayor emphasized that the new measures were taken preventively, to avoid something more rigid, such as a full lockdown.

Though the ICU occupancy rate for the state of Rio is around 73%, eight other of its cities have already collapsed. Bom Jesus, Miracema, Paraíba do Sul, Rio das Ostras, Saquarema, Sapucaia, Teresópolis and Três Rios have all run out of ICU beds, according to the Rio state health secretary data.

CNN has asked the government what measures are being taken to address the possible collapse of healthcare in the city of Rio de Janeiro, but has not heard back.

Rio de Janeiro state has nearly 600,000 cases of Covid-19 confirmed and 33,717 deaths, according to its health secretary on Sunday.