For the third day in a row, Brazil has recorded more than 2,200 deaths from COVID-19

Brazil, one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, recorded 2,216 new deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, exceeding for the third consecutive day the threshold of 2,200 daily victims, and 275,105 deaths since the start of the health crisis.

This is the third highest number of deaths from the virus in one day, since the start of the pandemic, after the 2,286 recorded Wednesday and 2,233 Thursday, with which the average of deaths last week rose this Friday to a record 1,762 per day, according to the bulletin published by the Ministry of Health.

According to ministry data, Brazil accounted for 85,663 new COVID-19 infections this Friday, the second highest number of daily cases since the start of the pandemic, exceeded only by 87,840 on January 7, and already nearly 11.4 million people infected.

The high averages of recent days ratify the South American country as the second country with the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the world, only surpassed by the United States, and third in number of infections, behind the United States and India.

These data confirm that Brazil, with its 210 million inhabitants, is currently undergoing a new wave of pandemic, more virulent and deadly, in part caused by the circulation of new strains of the virus, including the Brazilian variant (P.1) originating in the Amazon.

The country is on the brink of health collapse. Intensive care units (ICUs) are on the verge of being exhausted, there is a delay in vaccination due to lack of vaccines and measures to contain the virus are not enough.

In 25 of the 27 capitals, intensive care units exceeded 80% of their capacity and in 15 of them, the occupancy of these units exceeded 90%.

In regions like Mato Grosso and Santa Catarina, the system has already collapsed and in others, like Sao Paulo, the days are numbered.

In the São Paulo region, UCI quotas are running out, and if the hospitalizations continue as now, in less than a month, the state would enter a health collapse.

Sao Paulo, epicenter of the pandemic in the South American giant, with some 63,000 deaths and 2.1 million infections due to covid, further tightened the restrictive measures applied for a week and extended them until March 30.

With some 46 million people, Brazil’s most populous state will extend the nighttime curfew by three hours from next Monday, starting at 8 p.m., as well as from Monday, face-to-face religious celebrations in temples, football and school attendance will be banned.

In Rio de Janeiro, demands for an intensive care unit have increased by 90% in two weeks, so authorities have increased general restrictions for one more week, but relaxed some activities such as sales on The beaches.

According to the chairman of the national forum of governors, Wellington Dias, some 40,000 people are waiting for a place in an intensive care unit in Brazil and the Brazilian health system is experiencing a “national collapse”., by advocating more restrictive measures for the country in the Senate.

WHO calls for “serious measures”

In this context, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, again showed this Friday “very concerned” by the epidemiological situation linked to COVID-19 in Brazil, and asked on Jair Bolsonaro’s government to take “action seriously.”

This is the second time in a week that Tedros has warned of the situation in the South American country and the possibility of the virus transcending borders.

“We are very worried, because not only the number of cases increases but also the number of deaths “, said this Friday at a press conference.

“If no serious action is taken, the current trend (…) will result in more deaths”, he warned and called on the government “to take the situation seriously”.

With information from AFP and EFE

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