Brazil’s death toll from COVID-19 surpassed 500,000 on Saturday, the country’s health minister said, the worst official death toll in the world trailing only the United States.
Experts warn that the situation may even worsen due to delayed vaccinations and the government’s refusal to back social distancing measures.
Only 11 percent of Brazilians have been fully vaccinated and epidemiologists warn that, with winter arriving in the southern hemisphere and new variants of the coronavirus circulating, deaths will continue to mount even if immunizations gain steam.
Brazil has registered 500,800 deaths from 17,883,750 confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to health ministry data on Saturday. Over the past week, Brazil has averaged 2,000 deaths per day.
The pandemic continues to devastate countries around the region with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) reporting 1.1 million new confirmed COVID-19 cases and 31,000 deaths in the Americas last week. PAHO noted upticks in six Mexican states, Belize, Guatemala, Panama and some places in the Caribbean.
PAHO warned that Colombia’s COVID-19 situation is at its worst point yet, with intensive care unit beds filled in major cities.
Experts see the toll in Brazil, already the highest in Latin America, climbing far higher.
“I think we are going to reach 700,000 or 800,000 deaths before we get to see the effects of vaccination,” said Gonzalo Vecina, former head of Brazilian health regulator Anvisa, predicting a near-term acceleration in fatalities.
Brazil is experiencing the arrival of these new variants and the Delta variant, first identified in India, will send the country for a loop, Vecina added.
