Brazil tops 440 thousand deaths from COVID-19 and new cases continue on the rise

On Wednesday, May 19, Brazil registered 2,641 deaths, concerning the 24 hours before the announcement. With that, the country reached the sad mark of 440 thousand deaths related to COVID-19 complications. The information is from a bulletin released by the National Council of Health Secretaries (CONASS), on the 19th at 6 pm. The country now accounts for 441,461 victims of the infection caused by the new coronavirus. The council also informed that 79,219 new cases were notified in the period. The total number of cases in the country since March 2020 is now 15,812,055.

As alerted by Fiocruz, the moving averages of cases and deaths have been increasing every day, as a result of the relaxation of restrictive measures in states and cities started in March, when the country was going through the worst moment of the pandemic so far. Also according to CONASS, every day during the last week an average of 64,665 new cases were registered. The average number of new cases was 64,304 on Tuesday, May 18, and 63,914 on Monday. The daily average of deaths by the infection counted 1,951 victims on Wednesday, against 1,930 on Tuesday, and 1,901 the day before.

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A worse situation on the horizon

The growing number of new cases is the first sign of deterioration in the control of the pandemic. The next step is the increase in hospitalizations and the number of deaths., as the new coronavirus takes ten to fifteen days to attack the organism with full force.

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In its weekly report, the World Health Organization (WHO) points that Brazil, India, and other countries in Eastern Asia, are moving in the opposite direction of the world when it comes to the pandemic. According to the organization, there has been a worldwide reduction in infection rates by 12% since the last week. The number of deaths has also shrunken by 5%.

Slow vaccination

Meanwhile, mostly due to the lack of vaccines, only about 40 million people have received at least the first shot of the vaccine against COVID-19 in Brazil, roughly 18.9% of the population. Among them, around 19 million people have received the second dose and are completely immunized.