BRAZIL (Reuters) – São Luis in Brazil became the first major city in the country to begin “locking” the corona virus on Tuesday, an action that underlines widespread concern that health services across Brazil will soon collapse under the pressure of a coronavirus pandemic.

Tuesday’s lock size includes Sao Luis and parts of three other cities with a total population of about 1.3 million people in the state of Maranhão. It prohibits people from going out except to buy groceries, medicines, or clean supplies.

Maranhão – a poor northeastern state, where São Luis is the capital – has not yet felt the brunt of the crisis, in contrast to the interior state of Amazonas, where hospitals are overwhelmed and authorities are forced to bury victims in mass graves.

But with 4,227 confirmed cases and 249 deaths, Brazil’s poorest country is still dealing with a significant caseload.

In an interview with Reuters, Governor Maranhão Flavio Dino of the Brazilian Communist Party said 95% of intensive care beds in government-owned public hospitals in locked areas were controlled.

“We do preventative locking,” Dino said. “We are not dealing with chaos, but what we have observed is that demand is growing rapidly and is above our expansion capacity for beds and healthcare professionals.”

The lockout, which lasts until May 14, is mandated by the court, but has the support of the governor. This has happened when support for social and business restrictions has declined in Brazil, because the economic impact of this pandemic has raised fears about hunger in the poor.

Brazil is by far the hardest hit country in Latin America, with 105,222 confirmed cases and 7,288 deaths on Monday, according to the Department of Health.

President Jair Bolsonaro has downplayed the virus, comparing it to “a little cold,” but the reactions of 27 Brazilian state and district governments varied greatly.

Most have implemented a kind of business restriction, where non-essential services and trade are prohibited. But they have stopped giving official lockdown mandates, which will restrict people’s movements. In some areas, enforcement is very bad, and stores remain open despite official decisions.

While Brazilians initially supported measures of national social isolation by a wide margin, polls have shown support is slowly slipping, with a poll late in April showing statistical ties between those who support general quarantine and those who support allowing low-risk individuals to get back to work.