Topline
More than a half-million Brazilians have died of Covid-19, officials said Saturday, making Brazil the second country on Earth to pass that bleak milestone — but unlike some other large countries, Brazil is still grappling with high daily case rates and low vaccination levels.
Healthcare workers care for Covid-19 patients at a field hospital in the Pedro Dell’Antonia Sports … [+] Complex in Santo Andre, Brazil on May 17, 2021.
Key Facts
Some 500,800 people in Brazil have died from the coronavirus, according to government figures updated Saturday, an increase of more than 2,000 in one day.
Brazil’s coronavirus outbreak is the world’s second deadliest, behind only the United States, which has logged more than 600,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Case counts haven’t relented in Brazil: Some 505,000 people contracted the virus in the last week, just 30,000 below the country’s mid-March peak, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
More than 2,000 Brazilians are still dying from the virus every day on average, compared to 3,000 daily deaths in early April.
Big Number
29%. That’s the share of Brazilians who have received at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose, with 11% of the population fully vaccinated, according to government data. Brazil’s vaccination campaign has moved faster than those of some Latin American countries like Colombia and Peru, and its vaccination rate is similar to Argentina’s, but it’s well behind Chile and Uruguay.
What To Watch For
Brazil has signed contracts with drugmakers to buy hundreds of millions of extra Covid-19 vaccine doses in recent months. However, the country’s vaccination efforts are moving so slowly that the impact of vaccines might not be realized until September, Raphael Guimaraes from Brazilian public health institute Fiocruz told Reuters this week.
Tangent
Brazil is grappling with stubbornly high infection rates, even as other countries with large death tolls experience steep declines. New daily cases have slid to their lowest level in over a year in the United States (with a 53% partial vaccination rate), and daily infections have plummeted more than 80% since early May in India (with a 16% partial vaccination rate).
Key Background
Brazil has struggled with high Covid-19 infection rates, jarring death tolls and overwhelmed hospital systems for months. Some experts have blamed the country’s brutal spring surge on a more infectious new coronavirus variant first discovered in western Brazil. Meanwhile, the government has staunchly resisted nationwide lockdowns or social distancing rules, and President Jair Bolsonaro has mocked public health measures, downplayed the virus’ severity and derided Brazilians who are cautious about Covid-19 as “sissies.”
Surprising Fact
Brazil’s true coronavirus death toll is probably even higher than the number reported in official statistics, because not all Covid-19 deaths are accurately diagnosed and counted in real time, which is likely the case in virtually every country. Using data on overall mortality rates from all causes of death, a team of researchers from the University of Washington estimated in early May that nearly 600,000 Brazilians had died from Covid-19, even though the government had only tallied about 400,000 deaths at the time.
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