Brazil on Tuesday registered 1,179 COVID-19 deaths in the previous 24 hours, the Brazilian Ministry of Health said, as the pandemic exacted its worst daily toll yet in the hardest-hit Latin American country.
This was the first time the daily toll exceeded 1,000.
New infections in the previous 24 hours totaled 17,408, bringing the total to 271,628, the third-highest in the world after the US and Russia.
Photo: AP
As of yesterday, the death toll stood at 17,983.
The pandemic appears to be gaining pace rapidly in Brazil, and experts say the peak there is not expected until early next month.
Public health experts also say that the government figures might grossly understate the death and infection tolls — perhaps by as many as 15 times or more — because Brazil carries out very little COVID-19 testing.
Brazil recently jumped three spots in 72 hours to take third place in the world in number of known infections, overtaking Britain, Spain and Italy.
Already, hospitals are close to the breaking point in some areas, including Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and the northwestern state of Amazonas.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is in open conflict with most of the country’s 27 state governors as he downplays the virus and presses for the end of stay-at-home measures to rescue Latin America’s largest economy, which is now forecast to be headed for deep recession.
Bolsonaro announced that his interim health minister would yesterday issue a new treatment protocol expanding the use of the anti-malaria drug chloroquine to treat even mild cases of COVID-19.
Like US President Donald Trump, to whom he is often compared, Bolsonaro has hailed chloroquine as a potential wonder drug against the novel coronavirus, even though some studies have cast doubt on its effectiveness and safety.
Bolsonaro cited Trump’s own decision to take the related drug hydroxychloroquine preventively as evidence of its benefits.
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