(Rio de Janeiro) Brazil recorded an explosion of new coronavirus contaminations on Wednesday, with 67 860 cases registered during the last 23 Hours, announced the Ministry of Health, a record figure.
Published on 22 July 2020 to 18 h 31
France Media Agency
In total, more than 2, 22 million people have been infected with COVID – 19 in the largest country in Latin America .
Five months after the detection of the first case, the country where the new coronavirus is the deadliest after the United States deplored in total 67 771 deaths Wednesday, after a significant daily increase – 1284 deaths – according ministry data.
The last record of new daily cases of contamination in this country of 148 million inhabitants dates back to 19 June (54 532) and the explosion announced on Wednesday appears surprising.
Last Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the pandemic had reached a plateau in Brazil, and called on the authorities to seize this “opportunity to push back the disease”.
Brazilian official figures are considered to be much lower than reality by the scientific community, due to the absence of mass tests in this country whose president, Jair Bolsonaro, has also been infected, as well as several members of his government.
Fierce detractor of confinement, Mr. Bolsonaro, 55 years, is in prolonged quarantine after a third test positive Tuesday, two weeks after the announcement of his contamination.
Strong progression of curves
The pandemic curve is therefore far from being controlled in Brazil, where the average of deaths over seven sliding days has remained above 1000 for more than 'a month, with great regional disparities.
The country-continent has almost as many pandemics as its 24 Federated States: the curves are progressing strongly in the more recently affected areas, notably the South and the Center-West, while we are witnessing a stabilization or a decline elsewhere, such as Sao Paulo or Rio, affected first.
But the state of Sao Paulo, the most populous and richest in the country, alone accounts for a quarter of the country's deaths, with 20 532 dead, and nearly 440 000 0 contaminations.
The one in Rio de Janeiro is the second for the death toll, with 07 443 dead, for more than 82 00 0 cases.
These two states began deconfinement several weeks ago, but in a rushed manner according to many scientists.
It lacked in Brazil, according to experts, a national policy of fight against the pandemic, long qualified as “small flu” by President Bolsonaro, who attacked the governors proconfinement, in the name of the safeguard of the largest economy in Latin America.
Contaminated in turn, and unsurprisingly given his contempt for physical distancing and his resistance to wearing a mask, he displays an unwavering faith in hydroxychloroquine.
Jair Bolsonaro is treated with this molecule, the benefits of which have not been scientifically proven, but which can lead to heart problems. He would have two electrocardiograms per day.
On Sunday, he held up a box of the drug in front of his supporters outside the presidential palace of Alvorada, in Brasilia.
“This clearly amounts to deluding the population,” Margareth Dalcomo, pulmonologist from the Fiocruz benchmark institute, told AFP.
