RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil’s incoming health minister vowed Wednesday to implement science-based policies against Covid-19 and said he may make “adjustments” to far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s widely criticized management of the pandemic. Bolsonaro, who has defied expert advice on handling the new coronavirus, is facing pressure to contain an explosion of cases that is pushing Brazil’s hospitals to the brink and threatening his own chances at re-election next year. In a change […]

BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil has ordered 100 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine and another 38 million of Johnson & Johnson’s, the health minister said Monday, seeking to accelerate the hard-hit country’s lagging immunization campaign. Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said Brazil had secured a total of 563 million vaccine doses by the end of the year — some single- and some double-dose vaccines — and defended his handling of the pandemic, as rumors […]

BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil registered a record 2,286 deaths from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said Wednesday, as a worrying surge pushed the figure past 2,000 for the first time. The South American country of 212 million people, which has the world’s second-highest death toll in the pandemic, is struggling to deal with a crush of cases that have pushed many hospitals close to the breaking point. The new daily […]

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil broke its record for new daily Covid-19 deaths on Tuesday with nearly 2,000 fatalities, as the pandemic overwhelms hospitals and vaccinations progress slowly. The Health Ministry reported a daily total of 1,972 new deaths in the country, which has the world’s second-highest overall toll, exceeded only by the United States. It also reported 70,764 new cases of Covid-19, meaning 11.1 million people have now caught the virus in the […]

BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil registered a record of Covid-19 deaths for the second straight day Wednesday, with 1,910 lives lost to the pandemic. With a surge in cases currently pushing health systems to the limit in many areas, Brazil has recorded a total of 259,271 deaths, according to the health ministry — the second-highest death toll worldwide, after the United States. “For the first time since the pandemic began, we are seeing a deterioration […]

BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil on Tuesday registered a record 1,641 deaths in 24 hours from Covid-19, health authorities announced, as the country endures a further worsening of the pandemic. The country of 212 million inhabitants has recorded a total of 257,361 Covid-19 deaths, according to the health ministry, and has the second-highest national death toll after the United States. Brazil continues to have a piecemeal response, with individual cities and states setting their own […]