Brazil Counts 4,543 Deaths and 66,501 Confirmed Covid-19 Cases (April 27th)

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil reports 66,501 confirmed cases and 4,543 deaths from coronavirus, according to data from the Ministry of Health released on Monday, April 27th. In one day, the list of infections increased by 4,613, the second-highest since the pandemic reached the country.

In 24 hours, another 338 deaths were counted. The disease’s mortality rate stands at 6.8 percent.

The recent increase in the number of infections is related to increased testing of the population. São Paulo, which had up to ten thousand tests awaiting results, managed to clear the backlog.

The Southeastern state concentrates the majority of infections, with 21,696 and 1,825 deaths. Rio de Janeiro has 7,944 confirmed cases and 677 deaths. In terms of the number of deaths, three other states are of concern to the authorities – Pernambuco where 450 people lost their lives, Ceará with 390 deaths, and Amazonas with 320.

“Some cities are in need of more immediate action, such as Manaus, Belém, Fortaleza, and Rio de Janeiro. We are going to have centralized planning, with localized actions,” said Eduardo Pazuello, executive secretary of the Ministry of Health in an interview on Monday.

Testing failures and underreporting

Despite progress in testing capacity, a number of shortcomings and divergences between the Ministry of Health and state registration systems are hindering the country from understanding the true number of coronavirus tests that have been performed since the pandemic began.

A survey carried out by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo with the country’s 27 state health secretariats and the Ministry of Health found such issues as duplicate registrations, unreported numbers due to system incompatibility, and even cases in which tests for other respiratory viruses, such as influenza, are being counted as tests for the novel coronavirus.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), said on Monday that coronavirus cases are underreported in several regions of the planet, including Latin America, due to the lack of available tests. “We continue to support these countries with technical assistance through our regional offices and with supplies,” said the director during a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

Covid-19 in the World

The latest compilation of Covid-19 cases by Johns Hopkins University shows that on Monday, April 27th, the world passed the mark of three million people infected since the outbreak of the pandemic.

According to the US university, the United States accounts for the largest number of cases: 979,077. Spain comes next with 229,422 cases; Italy with 199,414 cases; France with 162,220 cases; the United Kingdom with 158,347 cases; and Germany with 158,213 cases. Brazil is 11th on the list, with 63,328 confirmed infections.

Source: Estadão Conteúdo