Covid-19: Brazil, averaging 3,000 mortalities per day, surpasses 358,000 total deaths (April 13)

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil registered 3,808 deaths associated with Covid-19 in the last 24 hours and accumulates 358,425 since the beginning of the pandemic, a little more than a year ago, the government reported on Tuesday, April 13.

In its daily balance, the Ministry of Health reported 82,186 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of infected people to 13,599,994, as the country is undergoing the worst phase of the pandemic.

Brazil is the country with the second-highest number of deaths and confirmed disease cases, behind only the United States. However, it is currently the country with the highest number of daily deaths from Covid-19 on the planet, with an average of over 3,000 deaths every 24 hours.

The lack of control of the pandemic in the country has raised international concern. On Tuesday, France joined the list of countries that have suspended “until further notice” flights from Brazil, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus’s Brazilian variant.

The suspension must be approved in the National Assembly and the Senate before coming into force on Wednesday. Its announcement marks a change of approach by the French government, which opposed the suspension of air links.

“The situation in Brazil is dramatic, and the dangerousness of the variant in question poses real difficulties for us,” warned Prime Minister Jean Castex today.

Health authorities believe that the Brazilian variant, known as P.1 and which is up to three times more transmissible than its predecessors, has, along with other factors, driven the explosion of cases in Brazil.

The spread of the virus has put the health system in collapse or on the verge of collapse in several Brazilian regions, including Sao Paulo, the richest and most populous and the one with the best hospital structure.

Sao Paulo, the region with the most accumulated cases and deaths from Covid-19, inaugurated a new field hospital in the São Paulo capital to care for Covid-19 victims, the twelfth to open its doors in the state during the second wave of the pandemic.