The first death in Brazil, a woman in her fifties in São Paulo (southeast), was recorded on March 12, 2020, at the start of the excruciatingly long health crisis that has stretched the country’s hospitals, morgues and cemeteries to their limits.
Brazil passed the 700,000 death toll from COVID-19 on Tuesday, three years after the first death from the pandemic, as Latin America’s largest nation mourns the world’s second-heaviest death toll, according to health ministry figures.
The first death in Brazil, a woman in her fifties in São Paulo (southeast), was recorded on March 12, 2020, at the start of the excruciatingly long health crisis that has stretched the country’s hospitals, morgues and cemeteries to their limits.
Only the US has recorded a worse toll, with more than 1.1 million dead, according to the World Health Organization. Officially, the pandemic has claimed the lives of at least 6.8 million people worldwide, although this figure is generally considered to be a far underestimate.
The handling of the crisis in Brazil has been marked by non-stop fighting, especially between scientists and far-right ex-president Jáich Bolsonaro.
The latter has long declared that COVID was nothing more than a “flu”, advertised ineffective treatments, opposed vaccination. He opposed restrictive measures to protect Latin America’s largest economy, while often addressing crowds of people, usually without a mask.
His successor, the centre-left Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, accused Mr Bolsonaro of “genocide”. He was in favor of vaccination. He himself received his 5th dose, in front of the cameras, in February.
Source :Skai
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