Brazil's coronavirus death toll passes 80,000
An aerial view shows Vila Formosa Cemetery on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The country’s death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has passed 80,000 on Monday.
Brazil’s coronavirus death toll surpassed 80,000 on Monday, according to health ministry figures, as the country hit second-hardest in the world continued struggling to control the pandemic.
The figure, second only to the death toll in the United States, quadrupled in two months. Brazil passed the mark of 20,000 COVID-19 deaths on May 21.
Recently, the Latin American country of 212 million people has regularly registered more than 1,000 new deaths a day — though the figure for Monday was lower, at 632, bringing its overall death toll to 80,120. The country has confirmed 2.1 million total infections.
Experts say under-testing means the real numbers are probably much higher.
President Jair Bolsonaro, who is confirmed of COVID-19 himself, faces criticism for downplaying the virus and urging state governors to reopen their economies despite health officials’ recommendations.
He is in quarantine, along with several infected members of his cabinet. But he previously defied state authorities’ stay-at-home measures, whose economic impact he argues could be more damaging than the virus itself. Bolsonaro, who famously compared the virus to a “little flu,” regularly hit the streets with no face mask until he got infected.
He was often shaking hands and taking pictures with supporters at rallies.
Like US President Donald Trump, whom he admires, Bolsonaro, 65, touts the anti-malaria drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as promising treatments.
He is taking hydroxychloroquine for himeslf, despite a lack of evidence of the effectiveness of either drug against the coronavirus.
