Brazil: Virus Unleashes, Contagion Tally Surpasses One Million

Brazil registered a new record daily number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and passed 1 million, the Ministry of Health said on Friday.

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In the last 24 hours, this South American country recorded 54,771 new infections and reached a figure of 1,032,913. This way, only the U.S tally is higher with 2.2 million.

The number of deaths reached 48,954. Brazil has exceeded 1,000 deaths per day since Thursday, according to Ministry data. However, experts say that real numbers are much higher, due to the fact that massive testing are not been carried out.

"Speaking of Brazil as a whole, the epidemic can only be analyzed with the stabilization of the curve in all regions, which should happen by the end of August or September," former Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta explained.

Early today, the World Health Organization (WHO) disclosed that the Americas, Africa, and Southeast Asia as the areas where the pandemic was spreading rapidly.

"This happens at a moment when the death toll has risen to 450,000 worldwide. About 75 percent of the cases are from only 10 countries, mainly from these regions," WHO President Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed.

Even when the nation he leads struggles with this health emergency, President Jair Bolsonaro keeps implementing highly criticized strategies, such as the use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, and often ignored social distancing recommendations.

"Ministry often emphasized the importance of isolation and social distancing, but the president said and did the opposite," Mandetta related.