Brazil records 1,682 new Covid deaths and accumulates almost 470,000 deaths (June 3)

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil registered Thursday 1,682 new deaths due to covid-19 and accumulated almost 470,000 deaths due to the coronavirus pandemic, hitting hard the most populated country in Latin America.

With today’s figures, Brazil reached 469,388 deaths due to this pandemic, which maintains Brazil as the country with the highest number of deaths due to covid-19, after the United States, according to the most recent balance of the Health Secretariats of the different states.

According to these official data, in the last 24 hours, there were 83,391 positive cases of the virus, which brings the number of infected people to 16.8 million, the third-highest in the world after the United States and India.

The increase in infections occurs in the midst of a greater relaxation of the restriction measures by the states, something that has triggered the alerts of the medical and scientific community, which foresees the arrival of a third wave in the coming weeks.

According to official information, 45.0 million inhabitants of Brazil have received the first dose of the vaccine and 20.7 million the second.

The new figure is known one day after the Brazilian President, Jair Bolsonaro, insisted on the need to relaunch economic activity in the face of the restrictive measures adopted by governors and mayors to curb the coronavirus pandemic. In a speech delivered on the national radio and television network, Bolsonaro, one of the most denialist leaders on the seriousness of the virus, stressed that his government “did not force anyone to stay at home” and that he and his 22 ministers defend the “freedom” and the right of citizens to “come and go”.