Correlation between basic sanitation and vulnerability to the covid-19 pandemic in Brazil

ABSTRACT

The covid-19 pandemic brought up several economic and socio-environmental issues, including the fragility of the Brazilian population given the current sanitary condition of the country. Understanding how this has been behaving has become fundamental for the basis of public policies aimed at controlling the pandemic. Therefore, this study aimed to know the relationship of vulnerability related to the lack/inefficiency of sanitation and the spread of covid-19, considering the 27 Federative Units of Brazil. For this, health, basic sanitation, and sociodemographic variables were used, and Factor Analysis was applied to calculate the Covid-19 Health Vulnerability Index. The analysis showed an inverse correlation between health and sanitation variables, attesting that the higher the proportion of the population with access to sanitation services, the lower the incidence rate of covid-19. The results showed that the states of the North and Northeast regions have greater vulnerability to covid-19 when compared to the others, derived from the low reach of sanitation services, especially in the state of Pará, which ranked first in the national vulnerability ranking.

Keywords:
coronavirus; health and environment; Health Vulnerability Index