Sao Paulo, Apr 24 (IANS): The government of Brazil's southeast state of Sao Paulo announced on Friday a weekly reduction of 23.6 per cent in the number of deaths from Covid-19, after two months of a relentless rise.

"For the first time in eight weeks, Sao Paulo had a 23 per cent decline in the number of deaths. This is due to the progress of vaccination and quarantine measures," the state's vice governor Rodrigo Garcia said during a press conference.

Sao Paulo, the state most affected by Covid-19 in Brazil, will reopen parks, restaurants, museums, beauty salons and gyms on Saturday until May 3, when the results of the quarantine will be analysed, the Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.

According to the Health Secretariat, the red phase of the quarantine in Sao Paulo reduced the daily average of deaths in the last week from 813 to 621, while the average number of cases fell 14.3 per cent and hospitalisations down 4.5 per cent.

In addition, intensive care unit bed occupancy was down 10 percentage points from April 1, to 81.1 per cent, Sao Paulo's Health Secretary Jean Gorinchteyn reported.

As of Friday, the state had registered 91,673 deaths and 2,811,562 cases, according to state health authorities.