Brazil's virus death toll passes 150,000

President Jair Bolsonaro has played down disease from start, despite contracting it

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro, right, insists on a return to normalcy to prevent economic collapse. Getty Images

Brazil on Saturday passed 150,000 deaths from Covid-19, the Health Ministry said, but the rate of infection continues to slow.

The toll was reported on the same day that Latin America and the Caribbean marked 10 million cases and more than 360,000 deaths.

The region is the worst-hit in terms of fatalities, official figures show.

Brazil, which has a population of about 212 million, has had most of the region's deaths.

On Sunday, it reported an overall coronavirus death toll of 150,338 and 5,095,586 infections, the ministry said.

It is the second highest death toll in the world, after the US, which has recorded more than 219,000 fatalities, and the third highest number of infections after the US and India.

In Latin America, Brazil is followed by Colombia, with more than 900,000 cases and about 27,660 deaths; Argentina, with about 884,000 cases and more than 23,500 deaths; and Peru, with more than 846,000 cases and about 33,000 deaths.

Mexico, although it has fewer cases at about 814,000, has the fourth highest number of deaths, with the toll increasing to 83,642 on Sunday.

Brazil's tally has been falling slowly since it hit a plateau in summer, when it reported an average of about 1,000 deaths a day for two months.

But experts say the decline is slow compared with countries in Europe and Asia, suggesting Brazil may still be in its first wave.

"It's like coming down from the Himalayas to the Alps, that is, you're still on a mountain," said Jose David Urbaez, a researcher with the Brazilian Society of Infectious diseases.

Even so, with more therapeutics available and awareness growing, health experts say the system is coping far better than it was.

"I don't know if the worst is over because we don't know what's coming, but we've certainly had worse moments than this," said Jaques Sztajnbok, head of intensive care at the Emilio Ribas Institute in Sao Paulo, the state with the highest number of Covid-19 deaths.

From the start, Brazil's leaders were divided over how to combat the pandemic.

President Jair Bolsonaro played down the disease from the start, despite catching it, and insists on a return to normality to stop economic collapse.

But state governors and mayors applied social distancing measures at the start of the crisis, although with the pandemic hitting the economy they have begun to loosen restrictions in recent months.

"I think we are becoming numb with this situation," said Caio Gomes, a student in Rio de Janeiro. "We hear so many bad things that we end up getting used to it.

Since the outbreak began in China late last year, the virus has killed more than 1.08 million people worldwide, infected more than 37.6 million and forced millions more out of work as the pandemic battered the global economy.