RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL- Brazil, one of the countries in the world hardest hit by the pandemic, added on Tuesday 3,086 deaths from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths to more than 395,000 since the beginning of the health crisis, just over a year ago.
According to the latest balance sheet of the Ministry of Health, the country recorded 72,140 cases in the same period and has now accumulated 14,441,563 infections.
The Latin American country has registered a slight deceleration in the epidemiological curve after several weeks of records that have made the first four months of 2021 more lethal than the whole of 2020.
According to Imperial College, London, the Covid-19 transmission rate in Brazil fell below 1 for the first time since November, suggesting a slowdown in the number of infections.
The average number of infections in the last seven days now stands at 56,927, after peaking at more than 77,000 in mid-March, the second deadliest month of the pandemic after April, according to data from the National Council of Health Secretariats.
As for the number of deaths, the average over the last seven days is 2,431, compared to the more than 3,100 recorded last April 12.
The Ministry of Health also reported that 12.9 million people have recovered from the disease in Brazil, while just over one million are still under medical supervision.
The Ministry also announced that it included pregnant women and postpartum women in the priority group for vaccination against the coronavirus, a process that continues at a slow pace due to the lack of available doses.
The Government had already recommended last March the vaccination of pregnant and postpartum women with previous diseases or complications. However, it now extended it to all pregnant women due to the still serious situation in the country.
“Still considering the current pandemic moment in Brazil with the high circulation of Sars-CoV-2 and the increase in maternal deaths due to covid-19, at this time it is highly probable that the risk profile versus the benefit of vaccinating pregnant women is favorable,” the ministry explained in a statement.