RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil has had 1,261 new deaths by Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, according to a compilation by the consortium of media outlets from the state Health Secretariats. Thus, there have been 41,058 deaths by Covid-19 in the country by this Thursday, June 11th.
The consolidated figures at 8 PM were:
- 41,058 deaths; there were 39,797 until 8 PM on Wednesday, June 10th, a difference of 1,261 deaths.
- 805,649 confirmed cases; there were 775,184 on Wednesday night.
The data were obtained by an unprecedented partnership between mainstream media G1, O Globo, Extra, O Estado de S.Paulo, Folha de S.Paulo, and UOL, which began to work in cooperation to collect the necessary data from the 26 states and the Federal District.
The goal is for Brazilians to learn about the evolution and total number of deaths caused by Covid-19, in addition to the consolidated numbers of cases tested and positive for the novel coronavirus.
For the third consecutive day, there were over 1000 deaths and more than 30,000 new cases in a one-day interval. The Northeast region records more cases than the Southeast. There are 285,000 confirmed cases in the nine northeastern states, against 281,000 in Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo.
Partnership
The partnership between the media outlets came in reaction to the Bolsonaro government’s decision to restrict access to data on the Covid-19 pandemic. Leading figures from the political and legal world, along with professional and press representatives, praised the initiative.
Changes introduced by the Ministry of Health in the disclosure of its pandemic assessment reduced the quantity and quality of the data for a few days. First, the time of disclosure, which was at 5 PM during the administration of Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta (until April 17th), was changed to 7 PM and later to 10 PM. This made it difficult or impossible to disclose the data on the evening TV news and printed media. “It’s over for the Jornal Nacional,” said President Jair Bolsonaro, mockingly, when commenting on the change.
The second change was qualitative. The website on which the Ministry publishes the number of deaths and infections was taken offline last Thursday night, June 4th. When it came back online, after more than 19 hours, it only disclosed information on “new” cases, i.e., deaths that occurred on the day itself. The consolidated figures and the history of the disease since its inception have vanished from the site. Links to data downloads in chart format, essential for analysis by researchers and journalists, were also removed from the website.
Among the items no longer released are: new case curve by reporting date and epidemiological week; cumulative cases by reporting date and epidemiological week; deaths by reporting date and epidemiological week; and cumulative deaths by reporting date and epidemiological week.
On Sunday, June 7th, the government announced that it would again report its balance on the disease. But it showed conflicting figures, released within a few hours.
On Thursday, June 11th, the Ministry of Health released the complete data, on compliance with the Supreme Court ruling. According to the portfolio, there were 1,239 new deaths and 30,412 new cases, totaling 40,919 deaths and 802,828 cases since the start of the pandemic. These figures are lower than those determined by the media partnership.
Source: G1