Brazil this Wednesday exceeded 300,000 deaths from the covid-19 pandemic since it registered its first case, almost thirteen months ago, reported the National Council of Health Secretaries (Conass) of the 27 states of the country.
According to the bulletin released by the forum that brings together the regional health secretariats throughout the country, Brazil registered 1,999 new deaths from coronavirus in the last 24 hours , bringing the total number of victims to 300,675.
While the country took almost eleven months to add the first 200,000 victims, since January 7, the other 100,000 were counted in just two and a half months.
Brazil exceeds 3,000 deaths from covid-19 in a single day for the first time
The record of the 300,000 victims came a day after the country recorded 3,251 deaths on Tuesday , so far the highest death toll in a day since the start of the pandemic.
Tuesday’s death record, well above the 2,841 deaths recorded on Tuesday of last week, which was the highest so far, raised the average number of victims in the last week to 2,436 per day, also the highest since the beginning of the pandemic.
The average number of deaths in the last week, however, fell to 2,271 a day this Wednesday, due to the sharp reduction in the number of deaths this Wednesday, which Conass attributed to the fact that two states (Amapá and Ceará) did not update their figures due to problems technicians.
The agency did not clarify whether the decrease in the number of victims was also affected by the attempt of the Ministry of Health to alter the criteria to confirm deaths from covid-19 on its platform, which was making it difficult to register in the official computer system and had to be suspended.
12.2 million cases
Conass also reported that Brazil registered 89,414 new infections of covid-19 in the last 24 hours , the third highest number in one day and close to the record of 90,570 cases added last Friday, which raised the total number of infected to 12,219,433 .
The average number of infections in the last week fell from 76,545 daily cases on Tuesday to 75,085 daily cases this Wednesday.
These figures make Brazil the country with the most deaths and infections of covid-19 in the last week and the second with the most victims and cases of the disease in the world since the beginning of the pandemic, surpassed only by the United States.
The worsening of the situation confirmed that Brazil faces a second wave of covid-19 much more virulent and lethal than the first, partly caused by the circulation in the country of new strains of the virus, among which the so-called Brazilian variant.
Sanitary collapse
The increase in infections and deaths has much of Brazil on the verge of a hospital collapse, since in 25 of the 27 states of the country the occupancy rate of intensive care units (ICU) exceeds 80%, and It caused a worrying shortage of the medicines needed to intubate patients and of oxygen for them.
Brazil faces lack of oxygen and drugs in overflowing ICUs
The critical situation of the hospitals has forced the authorities of different municipalities and regions of the country to adopt strict measures to restrict mobility to try to contain the spread of the virus and reduce pressure on the health system.
Some of the most populated states in Brazil, such as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro , adopted severe measures to curb infections and decreed a holiday that will extend throughout the next week, in which the operation of all activities will be prohibited, with exception of the essentials.
Despite the situation, the country’s president, Jair Bolsonaro , leader of the Brazilian far-right denier, continues to deny the seriousness of the pandemic; assures that the country is an example in the management of the same and came to go to the Supreme Court to try to limit the power of regional leaders to impose restrictions.
