Brazil recorded 3,693 new deaths from COVID-19 as it passed through the most critical moment since the start of the pandemic

Brazil has recorded 3,693 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and the total number of deaths is already close to 350,000Figures that confirm that the South American giant is going through the worst moment of the pandemic, the government said on Friday.

In total number, Brazil already has 348,718 victims and the total number of infected people has risen to 13,373,174, after counting 93,317 cases on the last day., according to the latest bulletin of the Conselho Nacional de Secretários de Saúde (National Council of Secretaries of Health, or CONASS).

So far this week, the country has already reached 17,285 dead. The latest daily death record was recorded the day before (4,249 deaths), after having surpassed 4,195 on Tuesday, when the country first crossed the 4,000 mark.

Since March, the death toll from COVID-19 has steadily increased in Brazil and its biggest increase was recorded first two weeks of April.

According to official data, the daily average for the past week iss 2,930 victims, while the average number of infections during the same period was 66,156 confirmed cases.

The terrible numbers coincide with a slow vaccination process in which only 10% of its more than 210 million inhabitants benefited from the first dose and 3% from the second.

The Latin American giant crosses the the most critical moment of the pandemic, where in addition to the problems of coping with mass vaccination due to lack of doses, the health system has collapsed in much of the country.

Despite the numbers, Rio de Janeiro, the second city in Brazil most affected by the covid, has chosen to ease from this Friday the measures that kept the stores closed for ten days.

The ‘cidade maravilhosa’, which has a row with more than 640 people with covid waiting for a place in an intensive care unit, reopened bars, restaurants and shopping centers on Friday with time restrictions. However, collective sports activities and access to beaches, waterfalls, parks, as well as stay on roads, areas and squares at night and early in the morning, are still prohibited.

Meanwhile, Sao Paulo, the most populous region of Brazil with some 46 million inhabitants, continues with a good deal of restrictions, which only allow the operation of essential services, although this will reopen the schools from Monday and allow the regional soccer championship to return to the field.

In Brazil, it has been a The controversy between those who ask to restrict the mobilization of people and those who believe that these types of measures pose major problems, to the economic detriment, including President Jair Bolsonaro.

The controversy had a new chapter this Friday, because Bolsonaro accused justice of engaging in “political activism” against the government, concerning two decisions of the Supreme Court of Brazil related to the pandemic.

One of the decisions supported the inclusion of churches as “non-essential services” which may be temporarily shut down to contain the spread of the virus, while the other has ordered the Senate to open an investigation into alleged government omissions in the fight against covid-19.

This last decision assumes that the The Senate must set up a commission of inquiry into the health crisis, with the power to summon ministers and authorities to give explanations on a management that opposition groups do not hesitate to qualify as “genocidal”.

With information from EFE

KEEP READING: