The Minister of Health of Brazil, Eduardo Pazuello, on June 9, 2020 in Brasilia. - JoÈdson Alves / EFE / SIPA

The pandemic is not weakening in Brazil. The country surpassed Friday the milestone of one million cases of coronavirus contaminations, only previously crossed by the United States. New epicenter in the world, Brazil records 1,032,913 contaminations after a record of 54,771 new cases in one day. With 48,954 deaths, it is especially the second country in the world where the Covid-19 kills the most behind the United States, which has exceeded 2 million cases and deplored nearly 119,000 deaths.

Rio revives football

The actual situation would actually be even more alarming. These bad figures announced by the Ministry of Health are indeed considered very underestimated by scientists due to the lack of massive screenings in this gigantic country of 212 million inhabitants.

However, despite the symbolic milestone reached on Friday, experts believe cautiously that the pandemic seems to finally reach a plateau, even if this hides strong regional disparities. The former Minister of Health Luiz Henrique Mandetta thus estimated Thursday that "the worst has passed in the cities of North and Northeast and that Sao Paulo is moving towards a decline in the coming weeks, like Rio". But, he warned, it will be necessary to observe the impact of the deconfinement. Some states, like that of Sao Paulo, have authorized the reopening of "non-essential" businesses, after nearly three months of paralysis. In Rio, the soccer championship resumed on Thursday.

Much better in September

The end of the tunnel is therefore not yet visible. "Looking at Brazil as a whole, the epidemic (should have passed) by the end of August or September," predicted Luiz Henrique Mandetta.

In the meantime, we have to deal with the bad June figures. Since the beginning of the month, Brazil has registered the most new infections (518,000) and deaths (19,000) than any other country in the world. With 12,232 dead, the state of Sao Paulo, the economic capital of Brazil and as populous as Spain with 46 million inhabitants, remains by far the first focus of coronavirus, ahead of that of Rio de Janeiro, which has 8,595 dead.

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