Brazil resumes publishing coronavirus death toll

Brazil’s government has resumed publishing the country’s total death toll from the coronavirus pandemic, after facing accusations of trying to hide the magnitude of its raging health crisis.

Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s government had stopped publishing the total number of deaths from the coronavirus on Friday, saying it was adopting a new methodology and would only report the number of deaths recorded in the past 24 hours in its daily bulletin.

That drew accusations of foul play from a long list of high-profile critics, as well as a ruling from Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Monday that the government must return to the old format.

The health ministry did so on Tuesday, indicating the death toll had risen by 1,272, to a total of 38,406 people killed — the third-highest virus toll in the world, after the United States and Britain.

The ministry said the total number of confirmed infections had risen to 739,503, the second-highest caseload in the world, after the US.

Experts say under-testing means the real numbers in the country of 212 million people are probably much higher.

The health ministry did not immediately respond to questions on why it returned to the old format and its plans for the future.

Bolsonaro, who famously compared the virus to a “little flu,” has railed against the consensus response to the pandemic, saying stay-at-home measures are needlessly wrecking the economy.

He threatened on Friday to quit the World Health Organization over “ideological bias.”

Bolsonaro’s threat followed in the footsteps of US President Donald Trump, whom he admires, and who withdrew the United States from the organization last month.