Brazil on Tuesday reported the highest daily COVID-19 death toll in the world with 1,039 people killed, the fifth straight day the nation has topped the list.
Latin America’s largest nation, which has emerged as a new epicenter in the coronavirus pandemic, has seen its daily death toll surge past that of the US, the hardest-hit nation so far.
Brazil’s daily death toll has passed 1,000 four times since the pandemic accelerated in the nation a week ago.
It has now confirmed 24,512 deaths, Brazilian Ministry of Health data showed.
With a population of 210 million people, Brazil has recorded 391,222 COVID-19 infections, second only to the US, but it remains torn over how to respond to the pandemic.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has downplayed the pandemic and railed against lockdowns, arguing the economic fallout risks causing more damage than the coronavirus itself, while most state governments have stuck to the WHO’s guidance and closed nonessential businesses.
Meanwhile, Brazilian police raided the Rio de Janeiro state governor’s official residence as part of an investigation into the alleged embezzlement of funds to build field hospitals for COVID-19 patients.
Rio de Janeiro Governor Wilson Witzel condemned the raid as “political persecution” by Bolsonaro’s government.
Federal police also raided Witzel’s former home and several other targets in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, on suspicion that a “corrupt network ... embezzled public funds allocated to respond to the public health emergency caused by the coronavirus,” a statement said.
Of the nine field hospitals that were supposed be built to avoid the collapse of the Rio de Janeiro state health system, just three have been completed so far.
Witzel, who has clashed with Bolsonaro repeatedly, denied any wrongdoing and said that he was being targeted for political reasons.
“What happened to me is going to happen to other governors who are considered enemies,” Witzel told a news conference. “I’m not going to hang my head ... and I won’t stop fighting against this fascism, this new dictatorship of persecution in our country.”
Speaking outside the presidential palace, Bolsonaro sent his “congratulations to the federal police” for the raid.
Witzel, who was himself diagnosed with COVID-19 last month, was a Bolsonaro ally during the latter’s 2018 presidential campaign, but the pair had a falling out and Witzel has emerged as a potential rival when Bolsonaro faces re-election in 2022.
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