Brazil recorded 82,266 deaths from COVID-19 in April, the deadliest month in the pandemic

Brazil added 2,595 deaths from covid-19 on Friday and totaled 82,266 in April, second consecutive monthly record for the South American country since the start of the pandemic, according to data from the Ministry of Health.

April’s mark far exceeds that of March (66,573 deaths), and reflects the virulence of the second wave of this disease that has already killed 403,781. This is the second highest figure in the world in absolute terms, surpassed only by the United States, which totals nearly 576,000.

However, during March and most of April, Brazil was the global epicenter of the pandemic, recording daily records of deaths and infections. It is only in recent days that attention has shifted to India, where the situation has deteriorated to dramatic levels with hundreds of thousands of infections, thousands of deaths and a lack of oxygen for critically ill patients.

The curve of infections and deaths in Brazil has recently shown signs of stability: the average death rate is 2,481 in the past seven days after surpassing 3,000 two weeks ago. However, the plateau remains at very high levels.

Occupancy of intensive care beds in hospitals has shown slight signs of improvement, but remains at critical levels (above 80%) in most Brazilian states, according to the latest bulletin from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation ( Fiocruz).

In relative numbers, the South American country, with 212 million inhabitants, is the one with the most deaths on the continent (192 per 100,000 inhabitants) and overtook the United Kingdom this week (188/100 000) , although it remains below Italy (200), Belgium (209) and several Eastern European countries.

Brazil took five months to go from 100,000 to 200,000 dead (January 7); but it only took 77 days to reach 300,000 (March 24) and 37 days to reach 400,000.

Experts attribute this scenario to a combination of factors, such as the relaxation of social isolation at the end of the year and summer vacation, the most contagious new variants, the delay in ensuring enough vaccines and the lack of national coordination with a unified virus fighter message.

The number of people infected since the start of the pandemic in February 2020 stands at 14,659,011, the third in absolute numbers globally, in this case only behind the United States and India.

A parliamentary commission was installed last week in the Senate to investigate the handling of the crisis by Bolsonaro and his government, in which four ministers of health have succeeded since the start of the pandemic.

Since the first case of covid-19 identified in Brazil in February 2020, Bolsonaro has opposed social isolation measures because of their economic impact; He also rejected the use of masks; he questions the effectiveness of vaccines and advocates remedies such as hydroxychloroquine, without proven efficacy against the disease.

A “cemetery” in Copacabana

The famous Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro was transformed this Friday into a symbolic cemetery during a demonstration by the NGO Rio de Paz, which deployed 400 body bags on the sand.

“These bags represent those Brazilians who must have been buried in mass graves, after their bodies were placed in such bags, and they died without the slightest solemnity,” he told the agency. AFP Antônio Carlos Costa, president of the NGO.

The vaccination campaign has so far reached 13% of the population with the first dose (28.7 million people) and 6% with the second (13.3 million Brazilians).

The Ministry of Health guarantees that by the end of 2021, it will have sufficient doses to immunize the entire population.

With information from AFP

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