Brazil exceeds 605,000 deaths from coronavirus and 21.7 million infections

Brazil, one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic in the world, registered 460 new deaths in the last 24 hours and 14,502 new cases of coronavirus, which exceeded 605,000 victims and 21.7 million infections since the beginning of the crisis, official sources reported this Friday.

According to the data released today by the Ministry of Health, with the new numbers of deaths and cases, very similar to those of Thursday, Brazil has accumulated 605,139 victims and 21,711,843 infections since the beginning of the pandemic, in February of last year.

These figures confirm the Latin American giant, with its 213 million inhabitants, as the second country in the world with the most fatal victims from the virus, after the United States, and as the third in infections, behind the North Americans and India.

Despite the high numbers of victims and infections, the pandemic has been easing in Brazil since June and the averages for both deaths and infections are among their lowest levels in several months.

The average number of deaths in the last seven days stood at 353 a day this Friday, almost a ninth of the record average of 3,124 deaths per day that the country registered on April 12, at the peak of the second wave of the pandemic.

For its part, the average number of cases in the last seven days stood at 12,052 a day this Friday, one seventh of the record of 77,328 infections per day recorded on June 23.

According to the Ministry of Health, of the 21.7 million Brazilians who contracted the disease, about 20.9 million have recovered and have already been discharged, which is equivalent to about 96.2% of those infected, and another 221,220 continue to receive medical care, corresponding to 1.02% of the total.

The government attributes the improvement in the situation to the advance of vaccination, which began late and slowly in January.

According to the portfolio figures, of the 213 million inhabitants of the country, 152.8 million have already received the first dose of any of the vaccines, which corresponds to 71.7% of the population, and 110.3 million received either the two doses or the single dose vaccine, which is equivalent to 51.8% of the population.

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