Brazilian health authorities have again recorded a record number of corona infections in the past 24 hours. In the past 24 hours, more than 90,000 cases were added in the South American country.
On Tuesday, Brazil already set a new grim day record with 2841 deaths in 24 hours.
On Wednesday, Brazilian authorities reported a further 2,648 deaths from the coronavirus. That brings the total death toll in the country of 212 million residents to almost 285,000. In total, about 11.7 million infections with the lung virus have already been diagnosed.
Both the Brazilian death toll and the number of infections are the second-highest in the world, behind the United States in both cases.
Although the epidemic in Brazil is heading in the wrong direction, partly due to mutated variants, right-wing populist president Jair Bolsonaro continues to downplay the virus’s seriousness. On Wednesday, Bolsonaro said he was happy that his supporters are demonstrating against rules around keeping their distance.
“Of course, I was happy,” said the president, who previously dismissed the coronavirus as “the flu”. “They show that people are alive. We want our freedom. We want the world to respect our constitution.”