Thousands of Brazilians poured into the streets on June 19 to protest against President Jair Bolsonaro’s anti-epidemic strategy, when the South American country officially passed the gloomy milestone: 500,000 people died from Covid-19. This country is currently the epidemic area with the second largest number of deaths in the world, after the US.
On June 18 alone, Brazil alone accounted for nearly a third of all deaths globally, according to statistics from Our World in Data .
"Just last June, we reached the milestone of 50,000 deaths. After only one year, this number has increased by 10. It’s scary," said scientist Miguel Nicolelis. Mr. Nicolelis predicted in January that Brazil would hit the half-million mark by July, and then many people still thought he was just exaggerating the truth.
Brazilian authorities are facing a lot of criticism because they missed the opportunity to order vaccines early, as well as have ineffective anti-epidemic measures. Pharmaceutical company Pfizer said that it did not receive any response from Brazil when it proposed to sell the vaccine to the South American country from August to November 2020. Brazil has so far fully vaccinated 11% of the population and 29% of the population has received at least one vaccination.
"We oppose the Bolsonaro government for not buying vaccines and not taking any action to take care of the people," said 36-year-old protester Aline Rabelo.
Brazilian media reported that protests broke out across 26 states and the capital, Brasilia. Many are calling for President Bolsonaro to step down.
Brazil’s Senate has opened an investigation into the Bolsonaro government’s anti-epidemic strategy, highlighting the delayed efforts to buy a vaccine, while promoting unproven measures to cure Covid-19.
Last month, a survey showed that support for Mr Bolsonaro had fallen to a record low, with only 24% of respondents saying his administration was doing "well" or "great".
According to observers, with the failure to implement the restrictions and distance orders, while the vaccination rate is not high, Brazil is increasingly "isolated" from the rest of the world when more than 100 countries are facing restrictions. entry for citizens of this country.
The Russian capital recorded a record of Covid-19 cases
The development of Covid-19 in Russia, especially Moscow, is complicated (Photo: AFP).
In Europe, Russia is also straining to deal with a complicated epidemic. On June 19, Moscow recorded 9,120 Covid-19 cases in 24 hours, an unprecedented high, breaking a new record set a day ago at 9,056 cases.
Hospitals in Moscow are overflowing with patients with the dangerous strain Delta, which caused a second wave of infections in India in April. They are capable of spreading faster than previous strains.
These numbers are three times higher than the average of 3,000 cases per day recorded two weeks ago in Moscow, showing how dangerous the Delta strain is. This strain accounts for 90% of the total number of new infections of the Russian capital in the past days.
Moscow continues to issue restrictive measures to prevent the spread of the disease, while trying to persuade, even order, to require people to be vaccinated.
This week, Moscow ordered people working in the service industry to get vaccinated against Covid-19, amid the low vaccination rate in this city. In Moscow, only 1.5 million people out of 12 million people have been vaccinated. Across Russia, about 19.5 million people out of a total of 146 million have received at least one vaccination.
