Brazil surpasses 600,000 COVID deaths

Brazil has become only the second country in the world to record more than 600,000 coronavirus deaths, Al-Jazeera reported.

Brazilian President Jair Messias Bolsonaro has faced criticism for downplaying the severity of the virus.

He has faced mass protests during the past several months, with demonstrators slamming his government’s COVID-19 policies and calling for his impeachment, and a Brazilian Senate committee in April launched an investigation into his pandemic policies.

But despite Friday’s somber milestone, there were signs that infections in Brazil were finally ebbing, as the country ramped up vaccinations after a slow start.

More than 70 percent of Brazilians have received the first dose, compared with 65 percent in the United States, which passed the 600,000-deaths mark in June.

Brazil also appeared to have been spared the worst of the Delta variant so far, with registered deaths and cases falling despite the arrival of the more contagious strain.

Deaths were down 80 percent from their peak of more than 3,000 per day in April, and Brazil no longer has one of the world’s highest daily death tolls.

KI/PR