Brazil has seen its highest daily coronavirus death toll yet, with the number of people dying from the virus in a single day surpassing 2000 for the first time.
The country, which has the second highest death toll in the world and the highest in South America, recorded 2,286 deaths on Wednesday. Brazil has recorded a total of 268,370 fatalities since the onset of the pandemic.
On Wednesday, the daily number of new cases in Brazil was 79,876, the third highest number recorded in Brazil so far in a single day.
Experts have wanted the surge in cases is related to more contagious variants, such as the P1 variant which is thought to have originated in the Amazon city of Manaus.
The news comes as Brazil’s healthcare system is close to breaking point, according to the country’s leading public health research institution, the Fiocruz Institute.
Intensive care units (ICU) in hospitals across the country’s 27 states were all close to capacity, Fiocruz said this week, with more than 80 per cent of ICU beds in state capitals occupied.
A Fiocruz report found that in at least 15 of these state capitals, ICU occupancy is over 90 per cent.
President Jair Bolsanaro, who has continuously downplayed the threat of the pandemic, was pictured wearing a mask for the first time in a month on Wednesday.
Last week, Mr Bolsanora told Brazilians to “stop whining” about the coronavirus, criticising restrictions used to curb the spread of the virus.
“How much longer will you stay at home and close everything?” he asked at an event.
São Paulo state and the country’s capital, Rio de Janeiro, announced their own restrictions and multiple state governors have attempted to take the vaccine rollout into their own hands, buy vaccines directly from manufacturers together rather than wait for the federal government to deliver them.
Margareth Dalcolmo, a doctor and researcher at Fiocruz told the AFP news agency the country was "at the worst moment of the pandemic.”
On Wednesday, former leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva criticised Mr Bolsonaro, calling the decisions he has made throughout the pandemic "stupid".
The only country with a higher death toll than Brazil is the USA. Brazil has recorded over 11 million cases of coronavirus since the pandemic began.
