"Devastating", as Brazil hits record high COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday

Brazil recorded its highest death toll from COVID-19 in a single day on Tuesday as political infighting exacerbated the country's health crisis and hampered its vaccination rate. About 1,641 people died of COVID-19 on Tuesday, according to data from the Ministry of Health, surpassing the previous one-day high of 1,595 deaths recorded at the end of July 2020. More than 257,000 people have died from the disease in Brazil, making it the deadliest outbreak in the world after the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed Brazil's hospital system to the brink of collapse, and state governors are now joining forces to buy vaccines and bypass the federal government, which has been slow to implement its vaccination program. Brazil continued to have a shattered response to the deadly disease, with individual cities and states instituting their own policies in the face of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro's repeated attacks on restrictive measures and face masks. Last week, Bolsonaro dismissed the use of face masks, saying it could lead to headaches and a "diminished perception of happiness." He also threatened to cut funding for cities and states that lock up tighter. According to the Ministry of Health, approximately 10.6 million people out of the 212 million inhabitants of the country have been diagnosed with COVID-19, with 59,925 new cases reported on Tuesday. 'Gloomy and scary time.' Several cities and states began introducing a new round of restrictions last week to prevent them from being overwhelmed by already sprawling hospitals. Al Jazeera's Monica Yanakiew, reported from Rio de Janeiro, said mayors and governors were "extremely concerned" about the upheaval in the COVID-19 cases and the situation "out of control". She noted that Bolsonaro's continued clashes with state and city officials contributed to the absence of a uniform response to the pandemic. "It's been the problem since the beginning," she said. In Sao Paulo, Sergio Stampar, an associate professor at the city's state university, said he had colleagues suffering from COVID-19 and that some were in intensive care. "Every day more scary and desperate," Stampar wrote on social media. Sam Cowie, a journalist in Sao Paulo, described the situation as a "gloomy and scary time". The pressure on the health system is so sharp that at least five COVID-19 patients died while waiting on hospital beds in the neighboring state of Santa Catarina in Sao Paulo over the weekend, Cowie told Al Jazeera. "What we see here is an absolute health disaster, and this is exacerbated by the new variant that was first detected in Manaus," he said. Brazil began its vaccination program in mid-January, but according to schedule, the government was promised to immunize the entire population by the end of the year. Only 3 percent of the country's population has been vaccinated, according to the latest official statistics. Experts have warned that if Brazil fails to control the spread of COVID-19, it could become the focus of mutation of the virus, potentially more contagious and deadly. The coronavirus variant, first identified at the end of last year in Manaus in the Brazilian Amazon, caused a renewed spate of cases that left the city's hospitals without oxygen in January. Research is currently underway to test the effectiveness of the coronavirus vaccines against the variant, which has forced countries to close their borders to people traveling from Brazil.

"Devastating", as Brazil hits record high COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday

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