Brazil surpasses 1 lakh Coronavirus deaths: Officials

(Photo: AFP)


Brazil on Saturday surpassed 100,000 coronavirus deaths and three million cases of infection, according to the latest tally from the Ministry of Health.

With 100,477 fatalities and 3,012,412 confirmed cases, the South American country of 212 million people is the second hardest-hit country in the global pandemic, after the United States.

The health ministry reported 905 new deaths in the past 24 hours, as well as 49,970 new cases.

Brazil has seen 478 deaths per million people, a figure equivalent to that of the United States (487), but lower than that of Spain (609) or Italy (583).

Senate speaker Davi Alcolumbre announced four days of mourning in Congress to pay tribute to the country’s 100,000-plus virus victims.

Earlier this month, President Jair Bolsonaro’s chief of staff, Army General Walter Souza Braga Netto had tested COVID-19 positive.

Late July, Bolsonaro’s wife Michelle Bolsonaro and Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Marcos Pontes had tested positive for the COVID-19.

Bolsonaro had announced that he tested negative for the virus more than two weeks after he was first diagnosed on July 7.

The country’s first confirmed COVID-19 case was identified in Sao Paulo on February 26, with the first death on March 12, also in the city.