Chilling images have emerged of mass graves that shows the extend of the coronavirus pandemic that has gripped Brazil.
The official line says there have been 2,400 deaths in the Latin American country but there are fears that the real number could be much higher.
It is speculated that some victims may not feature in the figures because they were not tested after they died.
The nephew of Vítor Batista, who was buried in one of the mass graves at Vila Formosa in São Paulo, said his uncle may have been a victim after he died on pneumonia.
Ulisses Frutuoso said his uncle passed away before the results of his Covid-19 tests returned.
Three grave diggers, one dressed in a white protective smock, lowered the 96-year-old into his final resting place.
Workers at the cemetery of said they are sure Covid-19 has claimed more casualties than official statistics suggest and burials have shot up by 50 per cent since the first reported case of coronavirus arrived in Brazil in late February.
One anonymous grave digger told FT.com: "We have been burying a lot. Many arrive here before getting the test results."
A report by Brazilian newspaper Estadão, based on official data, claims the number of deaths recorded as respiratory failure and pneumonia in Brazil increased by 2,239 in March 2020 from the same period in 2019.
While researchers at a group of respected Brazilian universities and institutes said last week there were probably close to 12 times more cases of coronavirus than were being officially reported.
As of Sunday Brazil had more than 38,000 confirmed coronavirus cases which means the true figure could be as high as 456,000.
Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro is playing down risks of the virus saying the pandemic had created a 'climate of terror'.
He has slammed state governors for imposing partial lockdowns and fired his popular health minister, Dr Luiz Henrique Mandetta, after he said he wanted tighter social distancing rules and that there were more cases than those confirmed - calling the official figures 'the tip of the iceberg'.
Chrystina Barros, an expert on public health management at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro who is tacking the killer virus, said the pandemic mixed with politics makes things 'complicated'.
A spokesman for the Health Operations and Intelligence Nucleus, or NOIS, said it was difficult to estimate the actual number of deaths because of the speed the virus is spreading combined with the low number of tests taking place.
He added: “The high degree of under-reporting may give a false impression about disease control and, consequently, could lead to a decline in the implementation of containment actions.”
It's not just gravediggers, health workers, and researchers in Brazil that are disputing the official figures, an identical discussion is happening in Mexico too.
As of Sunday, Mexico had 8,261 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 686 deaths but the nation's 'coronavirus tsar' Hugo López-Gatell, who is the health under-secretary, admits the true number is at least eight times that.
However the nation's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador insists the country of 127million people is an example to the world.
A pneumonia specialist working at two private Mexico City hospitals said the virus 'would explode' on a mater of days saying colleagues had been ordered not to report coronavirus cases.
Another medic claims there will be 60,000-80,000 cases resulting in at least 5,000 deaths.
Jaime Bonilla, the governor of Baja California, which has been greatly affected by Covid-19, said the official numbers did not tally with those from his state and appealed for the authorities to tell the truth.
He added that doctors were 'dropping like flies'.
Mexico City alone has reported more coronavirus cases than the federal government claims have been reported across the country.
Health authorities have denied a cover-up.
Sandra López Leon, a Mexican epidemiologist in New York., said given the lag between the surge of cases in the US and Mexico that 'Mexico has only one or two weeks to avoid deaths'..
