Brazil, the second country in the world most bereaved by the coronavirus, with nearly 375,000 dead, is also the one with the worst death rate in the Americas and the southern hemisphere.
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With 176 deaths caused by COVID-19 per 100,000 inhabitants, this country of 212 million souls has surpassed Peru (174/100 000), the United States (172) and Mexico (165) in recent days, according to data consulted by AFP according to the official reports of the various countries.
According to projections by demographer José Eustaquio Alves, the health situation is so out of control in Brazil that the country ruled by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro is expected to overtake the United Kingdom (187) or the United Kingdom in less than a month. Italy (194). In France, this rate is 150 per 100,000.
“Brazil broke all death records in March and April and jumped in the rankings, (…) to achieve the worst death rate in the Americas and the southern hemisphere,” told the AFP this researcher, former professor of the official statistics institute IBGE.
Last week, the average stabilized around 3,000 deaths per day and the curve could, according to him, have entered a “high plateau”.
But Brazil “is not immune to a new wave, due to the southern winter and the relaxation of restrictive measures” taken by mayors and governors of states to try to stem the spread of the virus .
The countries which occupy the top of the ranking of the worst death rates today are the Czech Republic (267/100 000 inhabitants) and Hungary (265). Six other European countries, including Belgium (205), are also above 200 deaths from COVID-19 per 100,000 inhabitants.
“These are countries with a cold climate and an aging, more vulnerable population,” unlike Brazil, where less than 10% of the population is under the age of 65, says Alves.
A recent study showed that more than 52% of Brazilians in intensive care in March were under 40, up from 14.6% at the start of the pandemic a year ago.
The curves of the pandemic have experienced a dizzying increase for more than two months, in particular because of the circulation of the Amazonian variant, P1, which is more contagious.
And vaccination continues at a slow pace: only 13% of Brazilians received a first dose, 5% the second.
A Commission of Parliamentary Inquiry (CPI) must begin to look into the Senate next week on “omissions” of the Bolsonaro government in its management of the health crisis, deemed inept by specialists.