Rio de Janeiro:
Brazil on Saturday crossed the grim threshold of 500,000 coronavirus deaths, the country’s wellness minister stated, trailing only the United States in lives lost to COVID-19.
“500,000 lives lost due to the pandemic that affects our Brazil and the world,” Marcelo Queiroga tweeted, without the need of providing the death count from the previous 24 hours.
As of Friday, the Health Ministry had recorded 498,499 deaths, with a everyday typical of more than 2,000 in the last seven days.
According to a consortium of the country’s most important media groups, the general death count rose to 500,022 Saturday afternoon. The government releases its toll following 2100 GMT.
Brazil, with a population of 212 million, became the second nation following the United States to surpass 500,000 COVID-19 deaths.
The South American nation seasoned a second wave of the pandemic this year, when it topped 4,000 deaths per day.
Brazil now seems to be grappling with a third wave in its outbreak, with infections and deaths spiking.
According to the most up-to-date weekly report from the Fiocruz health-related study foundation, the nation is in a “critical” circumstance with a higher quantity of deaths and the possibility of factors worsening in coming weeks as winter arrives in the southern hemisphere.
Experts are concerned about the slow rollout of the country’s vaccination campaign, the spread of more aggressive virus variants and President Jair Bolsonaro’s hostility toward preventative measures like mask wearing and lockdown restrictions.
Queiroga tweeted that he was working “tirelessly to vaccinate all Brazilians in the shortest possible time and change this scenario that has plagued us for more than a year.”
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