Brazil Breaches Grim 45K Mark For COVID-19 Deaths, Bolsonaro Continues To Ignore PAHO Warnings

Officials from the government of Brazil announced on Tuesday that they had the coronavirus outbreak under control. On the same day, the country's records did not mirror this announcement and indicated that 34,918 more people have been hit hard with the infections in a day.

According to a report, Brazil is now well on its way of leading the world in COVID-19 cases. After 34,918 more people tested positive on Tuesday, its number of infections have totalled to 923,189 and it has breached the 45K-mark in terms of its related fatalities.

A coronavirus tracking model from the University of Washington also indicates that it will surpass U.S. in the number of coronavirus infections and deaths by the end of July.

Consequently, the country is now positioned as the world's No. 2 coronovirus hotspot. But in spite of these grim numbers, its officials are still bent on reopening its businesses. This has gathered the criticism of those who think that its officials are trying to cover up the effects of its failed COVID-19 response.

Walter Braga Netto, who is head of Casa Civil or the Chief of Staff of the Presidency, declared in a webinar led by the Commercial Association of Rio de Janeiro that it is managing the outbreak well.

After being faced with angry responses by some, Braga Netto reasoned that he was justing trying to convey "a message of optimism" to his fellow Brazilians who are starting to fall into a dystopia in the midst of the crisis.

Although he had mentioned that Brazil's current number of fatalities was still lesser than that of Belgium, Spain, the United Kingdom and France, the World Health Organization warned that it does not have the needed infrastructure to be able to handle the outbreak.

According to Carissa Etienne who is Pan American Health Organization's Director, the country is Latin America's largest contributor of coronavirus deaths and infected cases as it covers 25% of the total recorded cases in both categories.

PAHO is one with other organizations calling for Brazil's hastened response to tackle its current circumstance as it has seen no improvement in terms of the transmission rates in the country.

Although President Jair Bolsonaro's approach has been to ignore the pandemic and do nothing, PAHO urges it to reconsider its plans to reopen the economy, and intensify the implementation of its social distancing measures.