Coronavirus: Brazil passes 10 million cases with new strain spreading rapidly
- As Brazil battles a second wave, it also has to deal with a new virus variant, thought to be more contagious
- The country has second-highest coronavirus death toll in the world after the United States
Brazil became the third country in the world to breach 10 million coronavirus cases, with infections picking up speed in recent weeks as a new variant spreads amid a shortage of vaccines.
Latin America’s largest nation reported 51,879 new cases Thursday, pushing the total confirmed to 10,030,626, according to Health Ministry data. It’s a toll that lags only the US and India. Deaths rose by 1,367 to 243,457, the second-highest globally.
“Brazil’s situation is really bad, with contagion at high levels. We’re seeing health systems in several states either in collapse or close to it,” said Estevao Urbano, an infectious disease expert and director at Brazil’s Infectology Society. “We’re still not moving fast enough to know for sure this pandemic won’t get worse, or will at least hold at these levels. We should be extremely concerned about the numbers and this new variant, which could be more dangerous.”
01:38
Clandestine Carnival gatherings held after coronavirus pandemic cancels Brazil’s largest party
While encouraging signs in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic are emerging globally, Brazil is battling a resurgence of the virus, which has been made worse by year-end gatherings and a new strain found in the Northern city of Manaus. For most of this year, the country has reported over 50,000 new infections a day, about double the rate for October and November. Deaths have hovered above 1,000 a day.
The new wave has added to the strain on the public health care system, already suffering from decades of underinvestment, and led state governors to increase pressure on President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration to aid hospitals and buy more vaccines.
The severity of the crisis was on display in January as Manaus, nestled deep in the Amazon rainforest, declared a state of emergency and began to airlift patients to other states after the local health care system collapsed. Cities in the states of Roraima and Bahia, in the poor north and northeastern regions, have also seen hospitals reach capacity. Ceara imposed a curfew for its 9 million residents as the number of patients in ICU beds tripled in the past month.
“We’re seeing the virus circulate in a way we never imagined,” Jose Sarto, the mayor of Ceara’s capital city, Fortaleza, said when he announced the new restrictions Wednesday. “Every indicator signals we’ll reach the previous peak, and could surpass it. It’s very worrying.”