Brazil’s COVID deaths top 4,000 for 2nd time this week

By Gabriel Toueg

SAO PAULO (AA) - Brazil recorded 4,249 COVID-19 deaths in a single day Thursday, marking the second time this week the count has surpassed the 4,000 mark.

The Health Ministry’s figures reflect a lack of control over the pandemic in the country, even with the daily average of new cases beginning to decelerate.

The moving average of deaths, however, has grown again, reaching 2,818, and has now been over 2,000 per day for 23 days. Brazil is the only country besides the US to have reached the grim mark.

Brazil registered 89,293 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, taking the country’s tally since the beginning of the pandemic to 13,286,324. So far, 345,287 deaths have been registered in the country. The moving average of new cases declined about 17%, although it is still at a high level of more than 63,300.

The country is in a critical situation with tragic records accumulating. So far this year, Brazil has seen 32 days of record daily highs in fatalities. Of these, 30 days took place in March or April.

When defending on Thursday the adaptation of veterinary vaccine factories to produce vaccines for humans, Antonio Barra Torres, president of Anvisa, the Brazilian equivalent of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said the current moment of the pandemic in Brazil is far from over.

Supreme Court Justice Luis Roberto Barroso has ordered Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco to establish a parliamentary commission of inquiry that would target actions and omissions of President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration in combating the pandemic.

Pacheco gave assurances that he would comply with the decision but said the creation of the commission at this time will be a “point outside the curve” and that “it could crown the national failure in tackling the pandemic.” The Senator also said the commission’s hearings could serve as a “political platform” for potential candidates in the 2022 presidential election.​​​​​​​

Barroso’s decision is seen as a severe setback for Bolsonaro’s government. In his decision, the Supreme Court justice wrote that “the danger of delay is demonstrated by the urgency of investigating facts that may have aggravated the effects of the pandemic.”