Harrowing footage shows mass graves being dug in Brazil as the country's coronavirus death toll soars.
A total of 1,001 people lost their lives to the deadly bug yesterday, and the South American country now has more infections than any other country in the world apart from the US.
A sobering video shows row upon row of open plots ready to bury Covid-19 victims at the Formosa Cemetery on the outskirts of São Paulo, the country's worst-hit city.
"We’re losing the battle against the virus, that’s the reality," Dimas Covas, the director of São Paulo's Covid-19 emergency centre, told Reuters.
"The virus at this moment is winning the war.
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"These days coming up, the holidays, I don’t see them as holidays, but I see them as battle days. The most important days in the fight against the virus."
Brazil overtook Russia as the world's second-hardest hit country in the global pandemic after the number of coronavirus cases reached 330,890 on Friday.
The total number of deaths is now 21,048, according to the country's Health Ministry.
However, the true figure is likely to be even higher, as Latin America's top economy has been slow to ramp up testing.
The country's right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro opposes lockdown measures, and has suggested that anti-malarial drugs such as chloroquine can fight the virus.
The drug has also been championed by US President Donald Trump - who announced on Monday he has been taking it himself - although no conclusions over its effectiveness in treating Covid-19 have been reached.
It comes after Brazil's Supreme Court released an expletive-filled video showing Bolsonaro expressing frustration at being unable to replace senior members of the federal police.
According to the BBC, Mr Bolsonaro says: "I've tried to change our security people in Rio de Janeiro officially, and I wasn't able to. That's over. I won't wait for my family or my friends to get screwed."
The President, who has been nicknamed the "Trump of the tropics", continued: "If one cannot change the law enforcement official, one changes the boss. If not his boss, then the minister."
Bolsonaro has lost two health ministers since the start of the pandemic, after pressuring them to promote the use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, another anti-malarial.
On Wednesday, Interim Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello authorized new guidelines recommending wider use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine.
Brazilian Senator Humberto Costa, a health minister during Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s presidency, said: "The government is not exercising the role of a political leader that unites Brazil in this fight.
"The government is sabotaging the social distancing policy and is even selling the idea of a miracle drug to solve this problem, which doesn’t match the reality."
