Government to send 90 doctors to regions hit by floods in Bahia State

The Ministry of Health shall send, on Monday (Dec. 27), 90 doctors to help the population hit by heavy rains in recent weeks in the southern region of Bahia state. The information was given in an interview to the local press by the Minister of Citizenship, João Cidadania, who visited the state yesterday (Dec. 26).

Governor Rui Costa included, via decree, another 47 cities in the list of municipalities in emergency situation, as a consequence of the storms. As a result, the number of municipalities in this condition has risen to 72. According to him, 37 cities in the region are under water, hit more intensely by rising river levels.

On Monday (Dec. 27), the governor said in his official Twitter account, that the headwaters’ level of the Cachoeira, one of the rivers that cross the region, has started to decline, and that “there is an expectation of improvement of the situation in the coming days”.

However, the National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet) and the National Center for Monitoring and Alert of Natural Disasters (Cemaden) kept for this Monday (Dec. 27) the high risk alert of new floods and landslides in Bahia, due to the accumulated rainfall in recent days and the forecast of more rainfall.

According to the most recent report published by the Civil Defense Agency of Bahia on Sunday (Dec. 26), the state has registered so far 18 cases of death, as a result of the storms, two missing people, 16,001 people who no longer have a home and 19,580 people who cannot access their homes.

According to the Brazilian federal government, so far it has made available around US$ 3,5 million from the National Civil Defense Agency to help the affected population. On this Monday (Dec. 27), the government of Bahia also announced the opening of a special credit line of up to US$ 26,478 with no interest rate, to recover damaged commercial establishments.