In the last 24 hours, 133 people died in Brazil as a result of the new coronavirus, a 20% increase over the previous dayLocal media reported Wednesday.
In total, the dead already reach 800, and infections are 15,927 -2,200 just the last day- according to data from the Ministry of Health.
However, the public body warned that the contagions could be more, since only serious cases are being tested.
The mortality rate in Brazil as a consequence of COVID-19 increased by 42% in one week: While at the beginning of the week it was 3.5% (3.5 people died for every 100 inhabitants), now it was 5% (5 out of every hundred infected die).
San Pablo continues to be the state of the country with the most infected and deaths as a consequence of the coronavirus. There are 6,708 infected and 428 dead. Behind come Rio de Janeiro and Ceará.
Brazil is the Latin American country most affected by the new coronavirus pandemic. The Ministry of Health, which anticipates that the peak will arrive between April and May.
The high rates of infection and mortality in the country are attributed to the resistance of President Jair Bolsonaro to recognize the severity of the disease.
The president questioned the social isolation measures recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and adopted by almost all countries, facing his own Minister of Health, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who insists that his only creed in that fight is “science”.
The president received the support of business groups and leaders of neo-Pentecostal churches, like the influential founder of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, Edir Macedo, who called the virus a “Satan tactic” to scare people.
Nevertheless, lost the support of the overwhelming majority of state governors, many of whom applied mandatory quarantines that the president refuses to impose.
Brazilian science in action
Punished by budget cuts and criticism from the government itself, the Brazilian scientific community has shown its weight by developing State-of-the-art research and innovative solutions to fill the lack of hospital supplies in the fight against the new coronavirus.
That commitment ranges from group that sequenced the virus genome in just 48 hours after the first case detected in Sao Paulo, even the teams working on the development of a vaccine and a new “emergency lung ventilator”, including epidemiologists who study how Covid-19 spreads.
“The Brazilian scientific community is offering a very important contribution, despite the fact that it has been little financed with federal resources, especially in the last six years”Carlos Brito, scientific director of the São Paulo Research Support Foundation (FAPESP), told AFP.