For the first time since September 30, Brazil has returned above the 1,000 daily deaths from the coronavirus, according to the latest report published Thursday, December 17 by the Ministry of Health, which reports 1,092 new deaths.

The largest country in Latin America, which is suffering the full brunt of the second wave of the pandemic, deplores a total of 184,827 deaths due to Covid-19, with 7,110,434 confirmed cases.

The number of new contaminations also remains extremely high (+69,826), close to Wednesday's historic record (70,574).

The country of 212 million inhabitants has seen a sharp increase in cases and deaths since November and many specialists fear that the situation will worsen with the end of the year holidays.

Bolsonaro refuses to be vaccinated

The curves of the pandemic had fallen sharply after an interminable plateau to more than 1,000 deaths per day on average from June to August, before rising again last month.

The situation is all the more worrying as vaccination promises to be chaotic, with a late national immunization plan criticized from all sides.

The Ministry of Health is targeting the immunization of at least 70% of the population, or nearly 150 million people, within 16 months.

But the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who has continued to minimize the pandemic, sowed confusion for the population by ensuring that he would not be vaccinated.

He has also repeatedly discredited the CoronaVac from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, produced locally by the Butantan Institute under the supervision of the governor of the state of Sao Paulo, Joao Doria, expected to be his main opponents for the 2022 presidential election.

With

AFP

The summary of the week

France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 application

google-play-badge_FR