Accoding to the ministry, the total number of confirmed infections had risen to 739,503, the second-highest caseload in the world, after the US.
Health workers from the city of Melgaco ride a boat ambulance after visiting a small riverside community on Marajo Island, state of Para, Brazil (Photo: AFP)
Brazil’s government resumed publishing the country’s total death toll from the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday, after facing accusations of trying to hide the magnitude of its raging health crisis.
President Jair Bolsonaro’s government had stopped publishing the total number of deaths from the new coronavirus Friday, saying it was adopting a new methodology and would only report the number of deaths recorded in the past 24 hours in its daily bulletin.
That drew accusations of foul play from a long list of high-profile critics, as well as a ruling from Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Monday that the government must return to the old format.
Advertisement
The health ministry did so Tuesday, indicating the death toll had risen by 1,272, to a total of 38,406 people killed by the virus — the third-highest toll in the world, after the United States and Britain.
Accoding to the ministry, the total number of confirmed infections had risen to 739,503, the second-highest caseload in the world, after the US.
On Friday, Bolsonaro threatened to withdraw his country from the World Health Organization (WHO) and accused the body of being “partisan” and “political”.
Bolsonaro’s threat came the same day Brazil registered 1,005 deaths in a day, a record high.
Last month, US President Donald Trump had announced that Washington would also end its relationship with the WHO.
Trump first suspended funding to the UN agency a month ago and accused it of mismanaging its handling of the global pandemic.
Earlier, the President had fiercely criticized coronavirus stay-at-home measures, even as the number of infections and deaths continues to soar.
Advertisement
