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RIO DE JANEIRO: Just over six months after registering its first case of the new coronavirus, Brazil crossed the grim threshold of 120,000 people killed by Covid-19 on Saturday, with no end in sight to the crisis.
The country of 212 million people has recorded 120,262 deaths from the virus and 3,846,153 infections, the Health Ministry said in its daily update.
Brazil is only the second country to exceed the 120,000 death toll in the pandemic, after the United States, where the death toll now exceeds 182,000.
Unlike in Europe and Asia, where the virus hit hard and then subsided, Brazil’s outbreak is progressing at a slow but steady pace, said Christovam Barcellos, a researcher at the Fiocruz public health institute.
“Brazil is unique in the world. Since the beginning of the pandemic, its curve has been different from that of other countries, much slower, “he told AFP.
“It has stabilized now, but at a very dangerous level: almost 1,000 deaths and 40,000 cases per day…. And Brazil is still not over the top. “
The pandemic has also turned political in the largest country in Latin America.
President Jair Bolsonaro has downplayed the virus and attacked governors and mayors who imposed lockdown measures, arguing that the economic damage is worse than the disease itself.
Instead, the far-right leader is pushing the drug hydroxychloroquine as the solution to the health crisis, even though studies show it to be ineffective against Covid-19.
He again said on Saturday that the controversial drug had “saved the lives of thousands of victims” in Brazil.
Bolsonaro even took what he himself called the “right wing” drug when he was diagnosed with the virus in July.
“The way in which (Bolsonaro) has handled this is shocking. It’s not just his denial…. He has often crossed the line of disrespecting the victims, “said political analyst Michael Mohallem of the Getulio Vargas Foundation.
“The number of deaths is shockingly high,” he told AFP. “I think one day he will have to pay the price.”
Meanwhile, the virus has spread to more fragile demographic groups and to the interior of the country.
The impoverished inhabitants of overcrowded favelas or slums have been particularly affected.
So have indigenous groups in the Amazon rainforest, who have a history of vulnerability to external diseases.
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