Brazil registers 721 deaths and 34,027 cases from coronavirus in one day

Brazil, one of the global epicenters of the coronavirus, registered 721 deaths from covid in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths already close to 255,000, the Government reported this Sunday.

According to the most recent bulletin of the Ministry of Health, in total there are 254,942 fatalities, while in infections the figure already reaches 10,541,259, after confirming 34,027 new cases since the day before.

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This is the first time in the last six days that the number of daily deaths is below a thousand and that of infected, by half of those that have been recorded daily.

Until Saturday the country chained five days with more than 1,300 daily deaths from covid and more than 60,000 infections every day.

However, the figures may be higher, since the health authorities themselves recognize that both the number of covid cases and deaths tend to drop on weekends due to the lack of personnel to collect the data, which only ends up being consolidated on Tuesdays.

According to the ministry, the death rate from the virus was 121.3 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, this Sunday, while the incidence increased for 5,020 infected, per 100,000 individuals. The fatality rate of the disease in Brazil remained at 2.4% of the total population.

For more than a month, the average number of deaths from covid in the South American giant has exceeded 1,000 deaths a day and that of contagions stands at 50,000, figures that have half the country in critical condition.

The health system of 13 of the 27 states threatens to collapse due to the advance of the pandemic, since the Intensive Care Units (ICU) are about to overflow their capacity.

The situation has made it necessary to tighten the restriction measures, in which night curfews and the closing of shops predominate.

This second wave, which is more virulent in the country, seems to have been caused by the circulation of new variants of the virus, among which the so-called Brazilian mutation.

This variant is already present in 17 states, and has even reached other regions of the world such as Japan, which detected the new strain for the first time, and Great Britain, which this Sunday confirmed six cases.

BOLSONARO MINIMIZA LA CRISIS

The critical health situation that the country is experiencing was minimized this Sunday by President Jair Bolsonaro, who said that the problems of the health system and especially the ICUs, are nothing new.

“What happened in March 2015? Health in Brazil always had its problems. The lack of ICUs was one of them and certainly one of the worst ”, wrote the president on social networks, after publishing a news item five years ago that refers to the lack of places in the country’s ICUs.

Bolsonaro, one of the most skeptical world leaders about the severity of the covid, which he has come to call “gripita”, also reiterated in today’s message the suspicion that since the beginning of the pandemic has been evidenced by the measures of distancing to slow the spread of the virus.

“Today by closing the trade again and forcing people to stay at home, there is mass unemployment with disastrous consequences for all of Brazil,” he said.

Brasilia, the capital of the country and where the far-right leader resides, is one of the most affected by the virus, since the occupation of the ICUs is at 97% of its capacity.

To reduce mobility, avoid crowds and curb infections, the city closed shops and services for 15 days as of today, a measure that raised protests by businessmen and street vendors this Sunday.

Brazil, with its 210 million inhabitants, is the second country in the world with the highest number of deaths, behind the United States and the third with the most infections, after the North American country and India.