SÃO PAULO – Brazil has overtaken the United States as the country with the most daily cases of Covid-19 and deaths in the world, as an aggressive strain of the disease in the Amazon leaves the largest Latin American nation fighting for space in hospitals and cemeteries.
The daily death toll in Brazil, Covid-19, rose to 1,972 on Tuesday, the highest level since the pandemic. The death toll in the US on Tuesday was 1,947.
The average daily death toll in Brazil has risen to 1,573, while the US rate is falling – to 1,566 a day – amid fewer cases and more vaccinations, according to Our World in Data from Oxford University. The United States peaked at just over 3,400 daily deaths in January.
With many countries facing the worst pandemic, Brazil is facing one of its worst humanitarian crises as deaths and infections increase, with nearly 1,000 new cases every 20 minutes in the last week. more than 70,000 a day.
Public health experts blame some of the rapid spread of the P.1 strain in the Amazonian city of Manaus, which studies have shown to be more contagious and more capable of re-infecting people than previous versions of the disease. Deaths also rose as Brazil’s health system struggled to cope, meaning patients who could have been rescued were left to die in the hospital’s chaotic corridors or – in the worst cases – suffocated to death due to lack of oxygen.