Brazil exceeds 245,000 deaths from coronavirus, after adding another 1,212

Brazil this Saturday surpassed the mark of 245,000 deaths by the new coronavirus, while the number of confirmed cases already exceeds 10.1 million, reported the Ministry of Health.

In the last 24 hours, the South American giant registered 1,212 new deaths from covid-19, which raised the total number of deaths to 245,977, according to the most recent data released by the portfolio.

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For its part, the number of infected reached 10,139,148, after the authorities reported 57,472 new infections in the same period.

The mortality rate now stands at 117 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, while the incidence is 4,825 infected in the same proportion.

However, the figures could be even higher, as both cases and deaths tend to drop on weekends due to a lack of staff to collect the data, which is only finalized on Tuesdays.

The Government also reported that 9,067,939 people have recovered from covid-19, while 825,232 are under medical observation.

The numbers confirm Brazil, with its 212 million inhabitants, as the second country in the world with the highest number of deaths from the coronavirus, after the United States, and the third with the most infected, after the North American nation and India.

The Latin American giant is going through an overwhelming second wave of the health emergency and has seen its vaccination campaign, which began a month ago, come to a halt in several cities due to the lack of vaccines.

Likewise, given the worsening of the pandemic, at least six of the 27 Brazilian states have decreed curfews to reduce the spread of covid-19, at a time when the situation worsens due to the circulation of new, more virulent variants than the original strain.

This Saturday, the Government of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul determined the prohibition of any activity, between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. the following morning, until next March 2.

The measure is similar to the curfews already adopted in other Brazilian regions, such as the states of Paraná, Ceará, Bahia, Mato Grosso do Sul and Amazonas, or the São Paulo city of Araraquara, which also announced today a massive 60-hour confinement starting at noon this Sunday.

GOVERNMENT AUTHORIZES PURCHASE OF RUSSIAN AND INDIAN VACCINES

In the midst of the worsening pandemic, the Brazilian government confirmed this Saturday that it will waive the bidding process for the acquisition of the anticovid vaccines Sputnik V, from Russia, and Covaxin, from the Indian laboratory Bharat Biotech.

The initiative, as explained by the Ministry of Health in a statement, aims to “speed up” the process of purchasing antidotes once approved by the health regulatory agency, at a time when the national vaccination campaign has already been paralyzed in several cities due to a shortage of new doses.

The portfolio expects to purchase 10 million doses of the Russian formula, worth $ 118.8 million, and another 20 million doses of the Indian antigen, with a planned investment of $ 300 million.

The negotiations with the representatives of the laboratories in Brazil “foresee staggered deliveries” between the months of March and May.

However, the Ministry of Health conditioned the purchase of the vaccines to the authorization of the formulas by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), which is still waiting for the laboratories to submit the data regarding the efficacy and safety of the immunizers to begin the evaluation process on its use in an emergency.

Brazil started its national vaccination campaign on January 17 with 12 million doses (2 million of the antidote from the Anglo-Swedish laboratory AstraZeneca and 10 million of the Chinese antidote Coronavac), but the lack of new vaccines and supplies for local manufacture threaten the continuity of immunization.