Brazil passed a million coronavirus cases on Friday and approached 50,000 deaths, although experts believe these figures are probably several times higher.
The country is the second-worst hit in the world after the US, and reached 1,032,913 confirmed cases on Friday according to the ministry of health. Deaths are at nearly 49,000 and the virus has reached more than 80 per cent of Brazil's towns and cities.
It is feared the spread of the virus may even be speeding up, as new cases reached a daily high of nearly 55,000 on Friday.
But the real figures may be even worse, as a lack of widespread testing may be masking the true extent of the virus.
Alexandre Naime Barbosa, a professor at Sao Paulo state university, told Reuters: “That number of 1 million is much less than the real number of people who have been infected, because there is under-reporting of a magnitude of five to 10 times.
“The true number is probably at least three million and could even be as high as ten million people.”
Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro has come under fire for his handling of the pandemic, with mass protests in recent weeks.
Mr Bolsonaro has claimed the economic impact of social distancing is worse than coronavirus and promoted the use of two drugs that are unproven to work on the virus.
Parts of the country have started to emerge from lockdown in recent weeks, despite the high number of infections and deaths. Public health experts and doctors have warned this could lead to a second wave of the virus.
The country is also facing a worsening economic situation, with the government predicting an economic contraction of nearly five per cent for 2020.
