Morgues in school buses and night burials: Brazil collapses in the face of coronavirus and records new death record

Brazil again broke a new death record by coronavirus with almost 4,200 deaths in the last 24 hours, amid an explosion of infections across the region.

In their latest official report, health officials reported the deaths of 4,195 people from COVID-19. That way, there have been 336,947 deaths since the start of the pandemic. This is the first time since March 2020 that the country has recorded more than 4,000 deaths in one day because of COVID-19.

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In addition, the country is adding 13,100,580 infections after 86,979 cases reported on Tuesday. There are 1,204,849 active cases of the disease nationwide.

In the first six days of the month, the death toll rose to 15,432, continuing the trend of March, the deadliest month so far with 66,573 deaths, more than double the previous record. The daily seven-day average is 2,757 deaths, tallest in the world.

The outlook is increasingly gloomy. Specialists have warned that an even more complex scenario with overwhelmed hospitals could be experienced in the coming weeks, even though nearly 10% of the population has already been vaccinated with at least one dose of the vaccine.

Even in São Paulo, the richest and most populous city in the country, school buses have been allowed to load bodies and night burials are taking place.

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Bolsonaro spoke with Putin

Meanwhile, President Jair Bolsonaro spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Poutine, to try to speed up the purchase of the Sputnik V vaccine in the country which has not yet been approved by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa).

As Bolsonaro announced in a video uploaded to his Twitter account, the conversation was “very productive“.

Brazil has already produced the first batch of Russian serum in the country and is only awaiting authorization for its emergency use by Anvisa, which is still awaiting the necessary documentation to certify the safety of the vaccine.

The secretary general of this body, Antonio Barra, announced on Tuesday that it would send a delegation to Russia to inspect the production area. Meanwhile, next Friday, he will meet Russian Ambassador to Brazil Alexey Kazimirovich to analyze the issue.

Brazil is already the second country hardest hit by the pandemic after the United States, with an incidence that has skyrocketed in recent weeks.

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In several regions of the country, the health system has collapsed, according to complaints from medical associations. In this context, the Minister of Health, Marcelo Queroiga, spoke with the World Health Organization (WHO) and described the situation as “alarming”, as confirmed by the director of the organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.