Brazil has closed out a month in which it recorded a staggering 57,606 Covid-19 fatalities, with hospitals overwhelmed and doctors forced to make agonising decisions over whom to give life-saving care, AFP reports.
“Never in Brazilian history have we seen a single event kill so many people in 30 days,” said Dr Miguel Nicolelis, response team coordinator for the impoverished northeast.
With the southern hemisphere winter now approaching and the virus spreading fast, Brazil is facing “a perfect storm,” he told AFP.
Epidemiologist Ethel Maciel warned that “the worst is yet to come” as the country’s vaccination campaign is advancing slowly due to a shortage of doses.
Health experts say the explosion of cases is partly driven by a local virus variant known as “P1”, which is believed to be more contagious, able to re-infect people who have had the original strain, and has already spread to more than two dozen countries, including the US, the UK and Japan.
