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Brazil’s virus death toll passes 150,000 people: official
BRASILIA, Oct 11, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Brazil on Saturday passed the
bleak marker of 150,000 deaths from Covid-19, the health ministry
said, as the rate of coronavirus infections continues to slow in the
South American country.
The toll comes as Latin America and the Caribbean marked 10 million
cases Saturday and more than 360,000 deaths. The region is the worst
hit in terms of fatalities, according to official figures.
With 212 million inhabitants, Brazil has accumulated the majority
of the region’s deaths: 150,198 from Covid-19 since the first fatality
was recorded in March, and 5,082,637 infections, the ministry said.
It is the second highest national death toll in the world, after
the United States, which has recorded more than 213,000 fatalities
from Covid-19; and the third highest number of infections after the US
and India.
In Latin America, Brazil is followed by Colombia, with 894,300
cases and 27,495 deaths; Argentina with 871,455 cases and 23,225
deaths; and Peru with 843,355 cases and 33,158 deaths.
Mexico, although it has fewer cases at 809,751, has suffered a high
number of deaths — the fourth highest in the world — with the toll
currently 83,507.
Brazil’s tally has been falling slowly since it plateaued over the
summer, which saw an average of around 1,000 deaths per day for two
months.
But experts say the fall is slow compared to countries in Europe
and Asia, suggesting Brazil may still be in its first wave of the
virus.
“It’s like coming down from the Himalayas to the Alps, that is,
you’re still on a mountain,” Jose David Urbaez, a researcher with the
Brazilian Society of Infectology, told AFP.
Even so, with more therapeutics available and awareness growing,
health experts say the system is coping far better than it had.
“I don’t know if the worst is over because we don’t know what’s
coming, but we’ve certainly had worse moments than this,” Jaques
Sztajnbok, head of the intensive care unit at the Emilio Ribas
Institute in Sao Paulo, the state with the highest number of deaths
from Covid, told AFP.
From the beginning, Brazil has faced the pandemic with its leaders divided.
President Jair Bolsonaro has downplayed the disease from the start,
despite contracting it himself, and insists on a return to normalcy to
prevent economic collapse.
In contrast, state governors and mayors applied social distancing
measures at the start of the crisis — though with the pandemic
hitting the economy they have begun loosening the restrictions in
recent months.
“I think we are becoming numb with this situation. We hear so many
bad things that we end up getting used to it,” student Caio Gomes told
AFP during a walk on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach.
Since it emerged in China late last year, the virus has killed more
than one million worldwide, infected more than 36 million and forced
millions more out of work as the pandemic batters the global economy.
BSS/AFP/MRU/0837hrs