Coronavirus: Brazil becomes second country to pass 50,000 deaths

Brazil has become the second country, after the US, to record more than 50,000 deaths from Covid-19.

It comes amid rising political tension and days after the country verified more than one million coronavirus infections.

Experts predict that the peak of the outbreak in Brazil is still weeks away.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported the most significant one-day increase in cases, with the Americas responsible for most of the new infections.

The agency said, 183,000 new cases recorded in 24 hours, more than 60% were from North and South America.

Still, the growing outbreak did not stop thousands of supporters and opponents of Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro from taking to the streets in rival protests on Sunday.

Anti-government demonstrators are calling for Bolsonaro to be charged. It follows the arrest on Thursday of a former aide and family friend who is accused of corruption.

His supporters say Congress and the Supreme Court are trying to restrict his powers.

Bolsonaro has also been massively criticised for his response to the coronavirus outbreak. He has denied lockdowns and openly disagreed with advice from his government's health ministry.

On Sunday, the ministry announced that 641 more deaths had been registered in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 50,617. Over the same period, it also recorded more than 17,000 new infections.

Only the US has fared worse, with 2.2 million cases and nearly 120,000 deaths.

Bolsonaro claims that the economic impact of the measures will be much more significant than the virus itself, a position given by many. But his overall approach to the crisis has led to the resignation of two doctors as health minister.

There was no national lockdown, but states and cities adopted their measures. After months of restrictions, some are slowly being raised, even though infection levels remain high.

There is still concern that the health system will be inadequate to cope in some places, and that the disease is spreading quicker in deprived neighbourhoods and remote areas, such as native communities, where access to adequate care is complicated.

As well as the pandemic, Bolsonaro is facing a growing political disaster. He is under investigation for supposedly trying to interfere with the police for political motives, which he denies, while the Supreme Court is carrying out two separate inquiries into his allies.

On Sunday, police in the capital, Brasilia, kept rival groups apart as they marched outside Congress and the Supreme Court buildings. Other large gatherings took place in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.