Covid-19: Brazil Records 565 Deaths in 24 Hours, Totals 115,309 Deaths (August 24th)

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Yesterday, the country passed 115,000 deaths by Covid-19, according to the latest survey by the Ministry of Health. There were 565 new deaths recorded in the past 24 hours, totaling 115,309 since the start of the pandemic.

The amount of new confirmed cases between Sunday and Monday was 17,078, for a total of 3,622,861 diagnosed cases.

The federal government counts 2,778,709 recovered patients and points out 728,843 cases in follow-up.

Bolsonaro attacks the press and defends chloroquine

Yesterday, hours before the country passed 115,000 deaths by Covid-19, President Jair Bolsonaro took part in the event “Brazil beating Covid-19”. At the ceremony, the Chief Executive again praised the use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in treatments for the disease resulting from the novel coronavirus, despite the lack of scientific evidence of the drug’s efficacy in fighting Covid-19.

Arthur Weintraub, brother of former Minister of Education Abraham Weintraub and special advisor to the Presidency, lamented the doctors who lost their jobs for advocating the drugs. Bolsonaro, on the other hand, after telling a reporter that he wanted to “beat the hell out of him,” declared that if infected by covid-19, journalists have less of a chance of surviving than he, the President of the Republic.

Pazuello: Positive Numbers

Not present in the ceremony at the Planalto Palace, the interim Minister of Health, General Eduardo Pazuello, said yesterday that at the end of the pandemic, the numbers in Brazil will be “very positive”. He attended the inauguration of a unit to assist in the diagnosis of the novel coronavirus in a Fiocruz facility in Ceará.

“I’m not talking only about numbers, which will be very positive in the end, when we assess the Brazilian population and, unfortunately, the casualties. I’m talking about what we did to fight the pandemic. What we delivered, we got to the end of the line”, he declared.

The interim Minister also stressed, without providing evidence, that the number of deaths in the country would have been lower if the use of hydroxychloroquine had been applied in treatments from the start.