Brazil registers its third consecutive record of coronavirus cases

Brazil, one of the most affected countries in the world by the pandemic, this Friday added 799 new deaths from the COVID-19, the highest figure since last September, and chained its third consecutive record of infections in one day, with 269,968, official sources reported.

In the last three days alone, the South American country has reported nearly 725,000 people infected with the new coronavirus, at a time when the omicron variant is spreading uncontrollably throughout the country and is beginning to put pressure on the public health system.

Data released by the National Council of Secretaries of Health (Conass) indicate that since the start of the pandemic, in February 2020, Brazil has accumulated 25,034,806 infected with the virus and 625,884 deaths related to the disease.

The 799 deaths reported this Friday is the highest daily figure since last September 22, when it reached 876 deaths associated with covid-19.

However, they are still far from the 4,249 deaths on April 8, 2021, a historical maximum since the start of the health emergency in Brazil, although the trend in recent days is upward.

The contagious omicron has exponentially triggered coronavirus infections in the country since the beginning of the year, although this vertiginous growth, for the moment, has not translated into an increase in deaths in the same proportion, thanks mainly to vaccination. .

To date, 70% of the 213 million Brazilians have completed the vaccination cycle.

However, the pressure on public hospitals is beginning to rise, although those who need to be admitted to a clinic with more serious conditions are mostly unvaccinated people or those with incomplete immunization schedules.

In this context, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), one of the most prestigious medical research centers in Latin America, warned this week that the public health system of 19 of the 27 Brazilian states is on alert.

On the other hand, in an attempt to increase diagnostic capacity, the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) of Brazil approved this Friday the use and sale of covid-19 self-tests.

Anvisa’s decision comes at a time when private laboratories have warned of the lack of tests in various parts of the country, which for about two weeks has been breaking its historical maximum of daily cases.

However, this release of home tests will not materialize immediately, since the health agency determined that the companies that produce them will have to, one by one, request authorization and provide evidence that their product works.

Brazil is the second country in the world with the most deaths from covid-19, just after the United States, and the third with the most positives, after the US and India.

Epidemiological specialists note that the coming weeks will be difficult, with a very high transmission rate, and have asked the Brazilian authorities to strengthen the public health system to prevent it from collapsing once again.