Brazil has breached 4 million case mark as the infection rate has doubled in just 2 months as major parts of the country in Latin America come out of isolation.
43,773 new Covid-19 cases were reported on Thursday taking the toll of total cases to 4,041,638 . There were 834 new deaths reported taking the total death toll to 124,614 , as per the data released by the Brazilian Health Ministry. They are now second only to the United States globally in both cases and fatalities arising out of the disease. India is also closing in to the US and Brazil in terms of the infection count. Shockingly enough , Brazil has also surpassed the US and Chile in terms of most deaths per million people and is set to overtake Italy for the 5th spot globally as per the data issued by Bloomberg.
The affluent southeastern part of the country , having regions like Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro , has been the worst hit with 1.4 million cases while the northeastern part has 1.1 million cases. The worst mortality rate belongs to the northern region mostly forested by the Amazon rain forest with 73.5 per 100,000 residents.
Brazil went to counter this virus with – no nationwide planning , lack of testing facilities and a hasty reopening of their cities – all of which have turned Brazil into a worlds hotspot for the disease.
President Jair Bolsonaro made several botch ups during the crisis like endorsing a yet-to-be proven drug hydroxychloroquine as a panacea to the disease and contested the governors of various provinces for imposing stringent lockdowns. Incoherent policies made predicting the infection rates onerous for a country with a 210 million population.
PUC University , Rio’s researchers have said that the virus’s reproductive rate rose to 1.01 after more than a month of decline. They have said that the case will rise to 4.55 million by mid-September with an increase in deaths as well.
The country has been economically hit hard too with a 11.4% decline in the second quarter from a year ago. There is good news from the Bank of America , which says that the country’s economic activity is in strong rebound.
The isolation figures of Sao Paulo have fallen from the of 60% to 40% and the local media reported crowded beaches with people not respecting social distancing.
