Brazil topped 100,000 COVID-19 infections for the first time in one day

Brazil registered 100,736 coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, a new record since the start of the pandemic, bringing the total to 12,320,169 cumulative cases, as reported on Thursday by the National Council of Secretaries of Health (CONASS).

While 2,787 deaths have been reported in the last period, a high figure but below Tuesday’s record, with 3,251 deaths. The total is 303,462.

This is the first time since the start of the pandemic that more than 100,000 infections have been recorded in a single day. As of Wednesday, 89,414 infections were recorded and in the previous record, of March 17, 90,830 had been confirmed, the two significantly lower figures which explain the jump recorded on Thursday.

On Wednesday, by contrast, the country surpassed 300,000 deaths, after the record number of 3,251 deaths in one day was reported on Tuesday. A week full of sad records for the South American giant which has become the epicenter of the pandemic and is only exceeded in number of infections and deaths by the United States.

A situation that affects the whole region

“Unfortunately, the terrible situation in Brazil is also affecting neighboring countries,” Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), said on Thursday. It is “crucial” to refine the measures, he warned Tuesday.

The agency highlighted a rebound in covid-19 cases in the Venezuelan states of Bolívar and Amazonas, as well as in the department of Pando, Bolivia, and Loreto, Peru, all adjacent to the South American giant.

The The mass circulation of the Brazilian strain or P.1, a much more virulent SARS-CoV-2 mutation, is at the center of this new wave.

After being detected in the Amazon city of Manaus at the end of 2020, many countries have closed the passage by air and land to travelers from Brazil in an attempt to stop it.

But three months later, the variant has already been identified in 15 countries or territories in the Americas.

The easing of restrictions ordered by state governments, especially at Christmas and Carnival, has led to an “active public health emergency”, Said Etienne.

The country broke a new record on Tuesday, registering 3,251 deaths in 24 hours. A day later, it passed the 300,000 dead mark, while 12.2 of its 210 million inhabitants were infected. This Thursday, for the first time, it exceeded the range of 100,000 infections recorded in a single day.

The pressure drove the president Jair Bolsonaro, skeptical of the virus and tenacious opposing confinement, to form a crisis committee on Wednesday “to decide on the progress of the fight” for the pandemic.

But the decision comes when 23 of its 27 states report 85% occupancy of their intensive care units and reports of shortages of oxygen and other medical supplies mount.

Manaus recorded a weekly average of 110 daily deaths in February, nearly triple the number in the first wave.

“It’s not just the health care system that has collapsed. There was also a lack of supplies and oxygen. It was something dramatic, exasperating ”, said Adele Benzaken, doctor of this city of 2.2 million inhabitants.

“You have no idea what it’s like to see parents running around to get an oxygen cylinder. There was fighting in the places where they sold them, ”he told AFP.

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