US toll crosses 100,000; Brazil records 807 Covid deaths in 24 hrs
The number of deaths in the US from Covid-19 reached a new grim milestone on Tuesday as coronavirus tracker Worldometer reported that fatalities in the country have topped 100,000. The total number of infections in the US has crossed 1.7 million.
Meanwhile, Brazil’s daily coronavirus deaths were higher than fatalities in the US for the first time, according to the country’s health ministry.
Brazil registered 807 deaths over the last 24 hours, whereas 620 died in the US.
Brazil has the second worst Covid-19 outbreak in the world, with 376,669 cases, behind the US with 1.70 million cases.
Brazil has reported 23,522 fatalities.
Meanwhile, Brazil’s health ministry said on Monday it would not change its recommendation to treat coronavirus with hydroxychloroquine, despite the World Health Organization (WHO) deciding to suspend trials of the drug over safety concerns.
Like his US counterpart Donald Trump, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has touted the supposed benefits of hydroxychloroquine and a related drug, chloroquine, against coronavirus. Studies, however, have questioned their safety and efficacy against the disease, including one published Friday in respected medical journal The Lancet that found the drugs actually increased the risk of death.
That led the WHO to suspend a worldwide clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine as a Covid-19 treatment on Monday.
“We’re remaining calm and there will be no change” to the Brazilian guideline, health ministry official Mayra Pinheiro said.
The guideline recommended doctors in the public health system prescribe either chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine from the onset of Covid-19 symptoms.
It was issued shortly after the resignation of former health minister Nelson Teich, who reportedly quit over Bolsonaro’s insistence on pushing the drugs despite a lack of solid evidence. He was Brazil’s second health minister in less than a month.
Hydroxychloroquine is typically used to treat autoimmune diseases, while chloroquine is generally used against malaria.
Preliminary studies in China and France had generated hope the drugs might be effective against the new coronavirus.
That led governments to buy them in bulk.