Brazil’s COVID-19 death toll becomes second-highest in the world

Brazil’s coronavirus death toll is now the second-highest in the world, surpassing the United Kingdom’s death toll and trailing only the United States.

The two most populous countries in the western hemisphere now have the highest number of recorded cases and deaths in the world.

According to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, Brazil has 828,810 confirmed cases of the virus and 41,828 deaths as of Saturday afternoon. By comparison, the U.S. has recorded 2,066,993 cases and 115,206 deaths. 

The grim statistic comes as Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has widely rejected social distancing measures recommended by scientists. 

The Brazilian government stopped posting coronavirus statistics on their site last week, but was forced to put them back up after an order from the country’s Supreme Court. 

This week, India also surpassed Britain in terms of number of deaths from the disease as the nation with the fourth-highest number of cases globally, according to the Johns Hopkins tally. This comes after India experienced the most new cases in a single day on Friday.

As of Saturday morning, there have been at least 308,900 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in India and 8,884 deaths, according to the country’s Ministry of Health and Welfare.

The increase in cases comes as some countries have begun relaxing mitigation efforts like shutdowns and social distancing measures and as coronavirus testing has become more widespread in some places.