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The state of Sao Paulo recorded a total of 1,021 deaths in 24 hours, according to the Secretary of State for Health on Tuesday. This figure is the highest recorded since the start of the pandemic.

The deadliest day for the state in terms of a pandemic was seven days ago, March 16, when 679 people died in 24 hours. A total of 68,623 people in São Paulo have lost their lives due to Covid-19.

The healthcare system is also on the brink of collapse, with 91.9% of the state’s intensive care unit beds occupied. On Monday, 29,039 Covid-19 patients were hospitalized in Sao Paulo, including 12,168 in intensive care unit beds. On March 1, the number of hospitalized patients was 15,977, almost half of the current number.

On Monday, Sao Paulo’s Council of Municipal Health Secretariats warned that 54 cities have only enough oxygen for the rest of the week.

At a press conference the same day, Governor João Doria announced a partnership with a private beverage company to build an oxygen plant in Ribeirao Preto, one of the largest cities in the state of Sao Paulo. .

In an interview with CNN’s Julia Chatterley on Monday, the governor of the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, Joao Doria, called Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro a “psychopathic leader” and criticized the president’s response to the Covid pandemic. 19.

“We are in one of those tragic moments in history where millions of people are paying a high price for having an unprepared and psychopathic leader at the head of a nation,” he said during the first CNN movement.

Doria said a large chunk of deaths from the virus in Brazil could have been avoided if Bolsonaro had “acted with the responsibility that the post gives him.” He added that Bolsonaro had made “incredible mistakes, the most important of which was having a political dispute with the governors who are trying to protect the people.”

A little more context: Bolsonaro has repeatedly opposed lockdowns and restrictive measures and criticized governors and mayors for implementing them. He was also seen waving to crowds of his supporters during the pandemic, without wearing a mask, and advocated for drugs like hydroxychloroquine to treat the virus – a drug that has no proven effectiveness in combating Covid-19.

Brazil now has more than 12 million cases of coronavirus in the country, according to data from the Ministry of Health.

CNN’s Julia Chatterley and Hira Humayun contributed to this article.