Brazil has recorded a record 2,286 deaths due to Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Wednesday.
The South American country with 212 million people, which has the world’s second highest death rate in the pandemic, is struggling to deal with issues that have pushed many hospitals near the breaking point.
The new daily record brought the number of people who died from Covid-19 in Brazil to 270,656, the second to the United States.
The country also registered its third highest number of coronavirus infections on Wednesday, with nearly 80,000.
Health experts say the rise is fueled by new, more contagious variants of the virus, including one known as P1 that is thought to have originated in Brazil, in or around the Amazon rainforest city of Manaus.
“We are at the worst moment of the pandemic in Brazil. The transmission rate with this new variant is making the epidemic even worse,” said Margareth Dalcolmo, a physician and researcher at the leading public health center Fiocruz.
“2021 is going to be another very difficult year,” she told AFP.
Brazil has struggled to obtain enough vaccines for its population, and has contributed to criticism of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s practical handling of the health crisis.
The president, who disputes expert advice on fighting the coronavirus despite contracting it himself last year, last week urged Brazilians to ‘stop whining’ about Covid-19 and renewed his attacks on home-stay measures.
On Wednesday, he put on a face mask – a rare factor for him – to sign a bill speeding up the purchase of vaccines, and fending off criticism of dealing with the pandemic.
“Let’s trust our government, trust the Ministry of Health,” he said. “It’s an administration of seriousness and responsibility.”
But former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attacked Bolsonaro for his ‘imbecile’ Covid-19 policy, adding ‘the earth is round, and Bolsonaro thinks it’s flat … many deaths could have been avoided.’
Individual cities and states have instituted their own policies in light of the president’s position.
Vaccination started late in the big country and remains slow, with 8.8 million people (4.2 percent of the population) receiving a first dose.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, urged Brazil to take aggressive steps and warned that the country could affect its neighbors if it does not take the virus seriously.
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