Brazil Now Has World's Highest Daily Virus Death Toll

Brazil now has the second worst coronavirus outbreak in the world, according to official figures—and unlike the US, which has the world's worst outbreak, the daily death toll is rising. Reuters reports that on Monday, Brazilian COVID-19 deaths rose above the US daily toll for the first time, with 807 deaths reported in 24 hours, compared to 620 in the US. There have now been more than 98,000 COVID-19 deaths in the US and more than 23,400 in Brazil, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. Brazil ,where the daily death toll Monday was the highest in the world, has confirmed around 375,000 infections, but with insufficient testing, experts believe the real total is far higher.

President Jail Bolsonaro has resisted calls for a nationwide lockdown and strongly criticized state governors and mayors who introduced their own measures to stop the virus spreading. In a study released Monday, the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation warned that daily deaths in the country of 211 million people could keep rising until July, with a death toll of 125,000 by early August, CNBC reports. "Brazil must follow the lead of Wuhan, China, as well as Italy, Spain, and New York by enforcing mandates and measures to gain control of a fast-moving epidemic and reduce transmission of the coronavirus," said IHME Director Dr. Christopher Murray. (More Brazil stories.)