Brazil topped 400,000 coronavirus deaths: 25% died in last 36 days

Brazil topped 400,000 COVID-19 deaths on Thursday since the start of the pandemic just over a year ago, according to a media consortium based on data from regional governments.

The country, the most affected in Latin America by the disease, recorded its last 100,000 deaths in just 36 days, in the midst of a second wave of the most virulent and deadly pandemic that has brought the public health system to the brink of collapse.

Brazil is the second country with the most coronavirus-related deaths, after the United States, and the third with the most infected, with more than 14.5 million, after the United States and India.

The rate of disease-related infections and deaths has declined slightly over the past two weeks, although continues at dizzying levelswith the public health system still under great pressure in much of the country.

Despite this timid deceleration of the pandemic, the Brazilian Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, asked the population this Wednesday do not lower your guard and respect the sanitary measures, such as the use of a mask and social distancing.

“We are still in a very serious moment, with a very high death toll», Declared the minister during a press conference.

Official government data on the number of deaths and infections over the past 24 hours will be released in the afternoon, as usual. However, it is a fact that the country has passed the 400,000 dead for disease.

According to official data, In the first four months of this year, Brazil had more deaths from COVID-19 than the 194,949 recorded in 2020.

This second wave of the pandemic, more virulent and deadly than the first, began very timidly last November and finished letting go in the first months of this year, when the country successively broke its records of infections and deaths.

The maximum daily number of positives reached him on March 25, with 100,158, and that of deaths on April 8, when he reported 4,249 deaths.

This exponential growth was caused, in part, by the circulation of variants of the virus with more infectious power, two of which of Brazilian origin. those known as P.1, first detected in Manaus, and P.2, from Rio de Janeiro.

P.1 has become the dominant strain in several states of the country, including São Paulo, which to date has nearly 95,000 deaths and 2.9 million infections, and had its intensive care units with 90% of beds. busy.

According to a recent study by the Adolfo Lutz Institute, a national reference laboratory, 90% of the coronavirus cases recorded in São Paulo already correspond to this new variant P.1.

Authorities have determined that this new strain could be between 1.7 and 2.4 times more transmissible and capable of evading immunity obtained by infection with other strains.

Regarding vaccination, the Butantan Institute in São Paulo on Wednesday began production of Butanvac, the first vaccine against the coronavirus developed in the country.

“Butantan begins today to produce the first batch of one million doses of Butanvac, which will be produced entirely ‘by the institute’ without the need to import raw materials from abroad,” reported the state governor at a press conference. the country, Joao Doria.

Last Friday, the São Paulo entity asked the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), the country’s highest health authority, for permission to start phases 1 and 2 of clinical trials in humans. .

However, Anvisa asked this Tuesday for additional information on the formula to be able to publish the realization of what will be the first study of Butanvac in humans, because so far it has only been tested on animals.

Despite this, the São Paulo authorities wanted to anticipate this analysis by the control body and start the production of their candidate, with the forecast to have 18 million doses ready by June 15 beyond the eventual approval date.

(With information from EFE)

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