Brazil has 706,986 deaths from Covid complications By Poder360

Conass (National Council of Health Secretaries) reported on Tuesday (7.Nov.2023) that 178 deaths from Covid-19 were recorded in the last epidemiological week (29.Oct-4.Nov). 44,412 new cases were recorded in the same period.

Altogether, they are 706,986 deaths from the disease in Brazil since the beginning of the pandemic, in 2020. In total, there are 37,994,356 diagnoses confirmed in the period.

Already under the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), the Ministry of Health stopped publishing the daily bulletin with the number of cases and deaths from Covid. Now, the data is released weekly – divided by epidemiological weeks. The decision was taken in February 2023. The reason: the change in frequency “optimizes” the work of surveillance teams in the Federation units and “there is no longer any reason for daily notification”, according to Conass.

The last week recorded, which ended on November 4, was the 17th with the fewest deaths recorded since the start of the pandemic. The most recent wave (peak of cases and deaths from the disease) was recorded in February 2022, when the total for the week exceeded 6,000 deaths. The rate of positive tests for covid in Brazil fell in the 2nd half of October after 3 months of increase.

Read here how and from where the Power360 obtains data on the coronavirus.

PROPORTIONAL DEATHS

Brazil records 3,481 deaths per million. Among the Federation units, the worst situation is Rio de Janeiro, with 4,833 victims per million. The rates consider the number of deaths confirmed by the Ministry of Health and the population from the 2022 Demographic Census of the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) in each unit of the Federation.

WORLD RANKING

Brazil occupies 17th place in the world ranking of proportional deaths from Covid. The list is led by Peru, with 6,512 deaths per million. It is followed by Bulgaria (5,670), Bosnia and Herzegovina (5,060) and Hungary (4,898).

The United States leads in the absolute number of deaths from the disease. In total, 1,138,309 deaths from Covid have been recorded in the country since February 2020, according to data from Our World in Data.

The ranking of proportional deaths (below) should be read with caution, as there is high underreporting of deaths from the disease and, in some countries, underreporting is greater than in others.

A study published in the Lancet magazine in 2022 shows that, although the countries’ official count showed 6 million deaths, the most accurate estimate is that 18 million lives were claimed by Covid in 2020 and 2021.

India, for example, is known for its underreporting. The Our World in Data count shows 533,293 deaths as of November 2, 2023. The Lancet study, however, estimates that more than 4 million have died in the country.

China is another country for which data is not trusted, as are Indonesia, Russia and most countries in Africa.

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