Brazil is experiencing a third wave of pandemics, with more than half a million victims of COVID-19

“500 thousand. Lives lost due to the pandemic,” Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga wrote on Twitter.

The Health Ministry has announced that 500,800 people have died from COVID-19 in the country since the pandemic began, including 2,301 in the last 24 hours. However, many experts say that the actual number is much higher.

This week, the average number of COVID-19 patients dying per day surpassed 2,000 for the first time since May 10.

“It just came to our knowledge then [užsikrėtimo] and changes in the death curves, ”Ethel Maciel, an epidemiologist at the Federal University of Espirito Santo, told AFP.

“Our vaccines [programa], which could change the situation, is slow and there are no restrictive measures in sight, quite the opposite, “he said.

Life in the main cities of the country seems to have almost returned to normal: restaurants, bars and shops are open and many people do not wear masks on the streets.

However, the situation is critical in 19 of the 27 Brazilian states. In the affected states in particular, more than 80 percent. beds in intensive care units, and in nine of them the figure exceeds 90 percent.

Marathon runner

The second wave of the pandemic, which lasted from January to April, claimed a large number of victims.

The number of dead COVID-19 patients increased exponentially with the arrival of the Gama strain of covoravirus, which originated in Manaus, in northern Brazil.

Mortality began to gradually decline in May after the companies closed, but many epidemiologists believe that the restrictions were lifted too quickly, despite the high number of COVID-19 patients dying each day, around 2,000.

Unlike in Europe, there were no clear breaks between the pandemic waves in Brazil. “I don’t know if this is the third wave … The first wave doesn’t seem to be over,” said Alexandre da Silva, a public health specialist at the University of São Paulo. – The pandemic seems to have turned into a marathon runner starting to run faster. He is not a sprinter who starts fast and then loses steam. “

Brazil recently received several shipments of vaccines, including the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, but so far only 11 percent have been fully vaccinated. people. 29% have received the first dose of the vaccine. population.

Vaccination in Brazil began in mid-January with the AstraZeneca and Coronavac vaccines.

Far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who had already criticized vaccines, promised to immunize the entire population by the end of the year, but experts say that is unlikely.

Bolsonaro has been criticized for downplaying the pandemic, opposing quarantine measures and promoting the proven efficacy of COVID-19 drugs.

Thousands of Brazilians had again taken to the streets on Saturday to protest against the president.