RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil recorded 653 new deaths from coronavirus in the last 24 hours and 15,813 new confirmed cases. According to data from the Ministry of Health released on Sunday, May 24th, the total number of deaths in Brazil is now 22,666. Last Thursday, May 21st, the country recorded 1,188 new deaths in a single day, a daily record.
According to Johns Hopkins University (USA), Brazil ranks second as the country with the most cases of the disease, totaling 363,211. It is behind only the United States, with 1.6 million cases and 97,000 deaths in total.
In number of deaths, the United States is followed by the United Kingdom (36,000), Italy (32,000), Spain, and France (28,000). Brazil comes next, with only five states – São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Ceará, Pernambuco, and Pará – accounting for almost 75 percent of all deaths in the country due to the disease.
The most affected state, São Paulo records 6,163 deaths and 82,161 confirmed cases. Rio de Janeiro (3,993), Ceará (2,324), Pernambuco (2,200), and Pará (2,148) are listed in sequence in number of deaths.
In the ranking of confirmed cases, Rio de Janeiro passed Ceará and now comes in second place with 37,912 cases. Ceará accounts for 35,595, followed by Amazonas, with 29,867; and Pernambuco, with 27,759.
Last Friday, May 22nd, the WHO (World Health Organization) Executive Director, Michael Ryan, said that Latin America is the new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic and Brazil is the most troubling country.
Ryan said that although the highest number of cases has been recorded in São Paulo, the most critical situation is in Amazonas, “with a very high rate,” he said. The State has the highest number of cases in relation to its population: 490 people infected per 100,000 inhabitants.
Estimates also released on Friday by Imperial College London show that the spread of the disease continues to increase in Brazil. The rate of contagion (Rt), which is an indicator of how many people each infected person transmits the coronavirus on average, has been estimated at 1.3 – when it is above 1.0 transmission is considered out of control.
Source: Folhapress