Brazil has 2nd consecutive day of record Covid cases, with more than 200,000 infections

Brazil, for the second day in a row, recorded records of Covid cases. This Wednesday (19), there were 205,310 documented infections, the highest value observed in a single day. The moving average of cases also hit the record for the entire pandemic and is now 100,322 infections per day, 487% higher than the figure two weeks ago.

On Tuesday (18), 132,254 cases of Covid were recorded.

In addition to the growth in cases, deaths have also increased. This Wednesday, 349 deaths were recorded and the moving average reached 215 lives lost per day, an increase of 114%, also compared to data from two weeks ago.

The high number of infections is due, in particular, to data from Rio de Janeiro, which alone recorded 69,223 cases. The state did not provide an explanation for the number.

With this Wednesday’s data, the country reached 621,927 lives lost and 23,420,861 people infected with Sars-CoV-2 since the beginning of the pandemic.

The country data, collected up to 8 pm, are the result of collaboration between leaf, UOL, O Estado de S. Paulo, Extra, O Globo and G1 to gather and disclose the numbers related to the new coronavirus pandemic. The information is collected by the consortium of press vehicles daily with the state Health Departments.

Vaccination data against Covid-19 is affected by the hacker attack on the Ministry of Health system, which took place in December, with several states without update. In any case, the information was at least partially updated in 15 states and the Federal District.

This week, the consortium of press vehicles updated the Brazilian population numbers used to calculate the percentage of people vaccinated in the country. Now, the data used are the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) projection for 2022. All numbers are now calculated according to these values, including last year’s. Therefore, the percentages of people vaccinated may differ from the previously published figures.​

Brazil registered 1,689,540 doses of vaccines against Covid-19, this Wednesday. According to data from the state health departments, there were 153,477 first doses, 198,979 second doses. In addition, 1,440,750 booster doses were recorded.

Single doses had negative data (-103,666). This was due to revisions in Amapá (-5,455), Bahia (-31), Ceará (-3,959), Distrito Federal (-39), Maranhão (-133), Minas Gerais (-92) and, mainly, Rio Grande do South (-95,400).

In all, 162,418,676 people received at least the first dose of a vaccine against Covid in Brazil — 142,752,088 of them have already received the second dose of the immunizer. Added to the single doses of Janssen’s vaccine against Covid, there are already 147,754,119 people with both doses or with one dose of Janssen vaccine.​

Thus, the country already has 75.60% of the population with the 1st dose and 68.78% of Brazilians with both doses or with one dose of the Janssen vaccine. Considering only the adult population, the values ​​are, respectively, 100.40% and 91.33%​​.

Even those who received both doses or one dose of the Janssen vaccine should maintain basic care, such as wearing a mask and social distancing, say experts.

The initiative by the consortium of press vehicles occurred in response to the attitudes of the Jair Bolsonaro government (without a party), which threatened to withhold data, delayed newsletters about the disease and took information from the air, with the interruption of the disclosure of the totals of cases and deaths. In addition, the government has released conflicting data.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​