Brazil has surpassed the figure of 700,000 deaths associated with Covid-19 since the pandemic broke out in the country in 2020, official sources reported on Tuesday (28.03.2023).
The country reported 322 deaths in the last week and now accumulates 700,239 deaths linked to the disease, according to data from the National Council of Health Secretaries (Conass), a body composed of those in charge of the health area of the 27 Brazilian states.
The data place Brazil as the second country in the world with the most deaths from Covid-19, behind only the United States (1.1 million), according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The number of officially reported cases reaches 37.2 million, although that figure is no longer a reliable indicator because self-diagnosis tests have been available in pharmacies for a year. In addition, patients with milder conditions do not even undergo a test today.
Brazil recorded its first death associated with Covid-19 on March 12, 2020, the year in which 195,725 people died in the country.
The year 2021 was the worst of the pandemic, with 423,349 deaths. In 2022, with vaccination already in an advanced stage, it fell to 74,779, while so far in 2023 6,386 deaths have been reported.
The management of the coronavirus pandemic in Brazil was marked by the denialism of the government of Jair Bolsonaro, who was in power between 2019 and 2022.
From the beginning, the far-right leader minimized the seriousness of the virus, censured the imposition of isolation measures, rejected the use of masks, promoted drugs of dubious efficacy and sowed unfounded suspicions about the effectiveness of vaccines.
With the coming to power of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on January 1, the new government called on the population to catch up with booster doses, especially among children, whose vaccination rate remains low.
According to official data, 80.6% of the 213 million Brazilians have the complete immunization schedule (two doses or single doses), while only 50.5% have been given a booster.
At the moment, Brazilian states are offering the possibility of putting on the arm the bivalent vaccine of Pfizer, developed from the new variants that have emerged of the virus over the last three years.
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