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Corona virus in the world
Just over six months have passed since Brazil registered its first case of covid-19. Now the country will be the second in the world to exceed 120,000 deaths, and the crisis does not seem to have an end in sight.
“Brazil has not yet reached its peak,” said Christovam Barcellos, a researcher at the country’s public health institute, Fiocruz.
Among the 212 million inhabitants of the country, 120,262 deaths had been registered as a result of the coronavirus on Saturday and more than 3.8 million infected had been found, according to the country’s Ministry of Health.
Only the United States, with more than 182,000 deaths, has more deaths and infections in absolute terms.
Unlike Europe and Asia, where the spread of the infection occurred rapidly and then declined, the virus outbreak in Brazil has moved more slowly but steadily.
“Brazil is unique in the world. Since the beginning of the pandemic, its curve has been different from that of other countries. It has moved much more slowly,” says Christovam Barcellos, a researcher at the country’s public health institute, Fiocruz.
Spread of infection now it has stabilized at a very dangerous level, according to Barcellos: almost 1,000 deaths and 40,000 new infections per day.
“And Brazil has not yet reached its peak,” he says.
The disease has spread to the interior of the country and to the weakest groups in society. The poor in overcrowded slums have been particularly hard hit, as have indigenous groups in the Amazon rainforest.
The country’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, has repeatedly downplayed the threat of the virus and criticized local governors and mayors who have imposed restrictions and closures to slow the spread. The economic damage caused by the restrictions is worse than the disease, believes the president.
Bolsonaro himself fell ill with covid-19 in July and had to stay out of the public eye for a few weeks. But the illness does not appear to have prompted the president to change his position.
