Scientists predict that Brazil’s brutal increase in COVID-19 deaths will soon surpass the worst of a record wave in the United States in January, with deaths climbing above 4,000 for the first time Tuesday in a day when the outbreak overwhelmed hospitals .
According to the Ministry of Health, Brazil’s total death toll in the US alone was nearly 337,000, compared to more than 555,000 in the United States.
But with Brazil’s health care system at the breaking point, the country could exceed the total U.S. deaths, despite a two-thirds population of the United States, two experts told Reuters.
‘This is a nuclear reactor that has caused a chain reaction and is out of control. It is a biological Fukushima, ”says Miguel Nicolelis, a Brazilian doctor and professor at Duke University, who is closely monitoring the virus.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Health reported another 4,195 COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, well above the country’s previous one-day record. Brazil has set daily death records every week since the end of February, as a more contagious local variant and meager social distancing efforts fuel an uncontrolled outbreak.
With mass vaccinations limiting the U.S. outbreak, Brazil has become the center of the pandemic, contributing about one in four deaths a day, according to a Reuters analysis.
President Jair Bolsonaro has pushed back against wearing masks and barriers that public health experts consider the best way to reduce virus transmission.
The country dragged its feet last year when the world rushed for vaccines, which delayed the launch of a national vaccination program.
Despite the recent upsurge, Brazilian officials are urging that the country may soon return to something that looks normal.
“We think Brazil could probably be two, three months from now,” Economy Minister Paulo Guedes said during an online event on Tuesday. “Of course, economic activity is likely to decline, but it will be much, much less than the decline we suffered last year … and much, much shorter.”
Bolsonaro has responded to increasing political pressure with a dramatic upheaval of half a dozen ministries, which has put loyalists in key roles ahead of a tough re-election campaign next year against its political nemesis.