Brazil adds 2,403 deaths from Covid-19 amid new spike in cases (May 20)

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil registered this Thursday 2,403 new deaths associated with covid-19 and 82,039 positive cases, in the midst of a new upturn of infections that coincides with a relaxation of sanitary measures in most of the country.

According to the Health Ministry bulletin, the country has 444,094 deaths and almost 15.9 million confirmed coronavirus cases since the outbreak of the pandemic fifteen months ago.

This was the third consecutive day with more than 2,400 deaths due to covid-19 in the South American giant after the 2,641 reported on Wednesday and the 2,513 on Tuesday.

Brazil is the second country in the world with the most deaths from the disease, after the United States, which has 581,717 fatalities, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).

However, the number of deaths in Brazil has been falling since April, when it averaged more than 3,000 deaths per day, although it remains at very high levels.

According to official data, in the last seven days, 1,954 deaths per day from covid-19 have been reported in this nation of 212 million inhabitants.

On the other hand, the infection curve stopped falling at the beginning of this month and has shown a slight increase in the last three weeks, which has coincided with the gradual return of economic activities decreed by most regional and municipal governments.

In this context, Brazilian health authorities have recorded an average of 65,729 positives per day during the last week, with an upward trend indicating that the pandemic is not yet under control.

Brazil is the third country in the world with the highest number of people infected with the coronavirus, after the United States (32.7 million) and India (25.8 million), according to the WHO.

On the other hand, the situation could worsen further in Brazil with the appearance of the first cases of the Indian variant of the coronavirus, included by WHO in the group of strains of “concern” due to its greater transmissibility, which also includes one of Brazilian origin, known as P.1.

The authorities have so far identified six cases of the Indian lineage in crew members of a ship from South Africa, which had been isolated since last weekend in the port of São Luis, capital of the state of Maranhão (northeast).

One of the infected crew members remains in a private hospital in the city, in stable health.

This new outbreak became known shortly after Brazil banned entry into the country of foreign passengers from India, which is currently the largest global focus of the pandemic.

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