Brazil, the hardest-hit Latin American country in the coronavirus pandemic, passed the mark of 1,000 deaths on Friday, according to the health ministry.

The ministry’s latest figures gave a toll of 19,638 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 1,056 deaths — one fewer than it had indicated in an initial tally earlier in the day.

With a worldwide death toll of more than 100,000, Brazil’s figure is still relatively small compared to the number of deaths in countries such as Italy (more than 18,000), the United States (nearly 17,000) and Spain (nearly 16,000). But health officials are bracing for things to get worse.

Experts predict the outbreak will only start to peak in Brazil toward late April.

There are fears for what that could mean in the country’s poorest areas, especially the favelas — crowded, impoverished slums in cities such as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro that typically lack basic health and sanitation infrastructure.

Meanwhile, President Jair Bolsonaro meanwhile faces a firestorm of criticism for downplaying COVID-19, calling it a “little flu” and the reaction to it “hysteria.”

According to the political analyst Sylvio Costa, “Bolsonaro is politically isolated. He’s losing support across all social segments and has very few allies left in Congress or the judiciary,”

“Bolsonaro underestimated the pandemic”, he told to the media.

Disapproval of the president has risen amid the pandemic, according to recent opinion polls. He faces nightly protests by confined residents in Brazil’s biggest cities, who bang pots and pans from their windows, shouting “Get out, Bolsonaro!”

Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta’s approval rating for his handling of the crisis is at 76 percent, while Bolsonaro’s is at 33 percent, according to polling firm Datafolha last Friday.

The death toll in Brazil more than doubled in a week, from 432 on Saturday.

The hardest hit is Sao Paulo state, the country’s industrial hub and home to more than 44 million people — about the population of Spain.

It had 8,216 cases and 540 deaths, the health ministry said.
Rio de Janeiro state was next, with 2,464 cases and 147 deaths.
But experts warn the real number of cases is probably much higher, given limited testing capacity and a large backlog of samples.

Earlier this month, Bolsonaro announced new steps to address the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic in a telephonic conversation with his US counterpart Donald Trump.

In March, the president said that in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s economic powerhouse, the death toll seemed “too large.” Sao Paulo has the most cases and deaths so far of coronavirus in Brazil.

Earlier, Bolsonaro released a list of essential services to be maintained amid the coronavirus pandemic that includes religious services, which are currently suspended in the country’s two most populous states as part of a prohibition on large gatherings.

The Brazilian leader, who has previously dismissed precautions taken against the novel coronavirus as “hysteria” and “fantasy”, has been criticised for his response to the deadly outbreak.

Meanwhile, the number of global coronavirus deaths has increased to 102,753, while the total number of cases worldwide has surpassed 1.6 million, according to the latest update by the Washington-based Johns Hopkins University.

(With inputs from agency)