Brazil approaches US in January: New record for coronavirus deaths

The vertical increase in Brazil of deaths from Covid-19 disease will soon surpass the worst of the January record wave in the US and will shoot well above the average of 3,000 deaths a day, scientists predict.

The total number of deaths in Brazil currently follows that in the US, with almost 333,000 dead, according to figures from the Brazilian Ministry of Health, compared to more than 555,000 deaths in the US.

However, as Brazil’s health system is at a critical juncture, the country could surpass the total death toll in the United States, despite having two-thirds of its population, two experts told Reuters.

“This is a nuclear reactor that triggered a chain reaction and is out of control. “It’s a biological Fukushima,” said Miguel Nicolelis, a Brazilian doctor and professor at Duke University who closely monitors the virus.

Brazil’s far-right president Zaich Bolsonaro has opposed measures such as the use of masks and locks, which health experts say are necessary. The country stalled last year as the world embarked on a road race to secure vaccines, delaying the start of a national vaccination program.

With low-powered measures unable to stop the spread, Covid-19 cases and deaths are accumulating faster than ever. On the other hand, the mass vaccination campaign in the US is rapidly reducing the deadliest outbreak of the epidemic in the world.

Nicolelis and Cristovam Barcelos, a researcher at the Fiocruz Medical Institute, estimate, in separate predictions, that Brazil could surpass the US in both total deaths and the average death rate per day.

By next week, Brazil could break the US record of an average of seven days in deaths, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. The average daily death rate in the US peaked at 3,285 in January.