Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: As the world battles between virus, variants, and vaccines, Brazil, on Thursday, registered a record 100,158 new Covid-19 cases within 24 hours, officials said, underlining the scale of a snowballing outbreak that is becoming a major political crisis for President Jair Bolsonaro.
The alarming caseload, along with 2,777 more pandemic deaths, came a day after Brazil surpassed 300,000 fatalities from Covid-19, the world’s worst death toll after the United States, media reports on Friday said.
Many other countries have also reported spring-time revival of the virus’ ferocity. India recorded nearly 60,000 Covid-19 positive cases on Thursday.
Brazil’s health situation seems rather grim as the fresh outbreak has set weekly records due to a patchy vaccine rollout, a lack of national coordination, and an infectious new variant.
Senior lawmakers and critics blamed President Bolsonaro for his allegedly poor handling of the pandemic. He has been pilloried for his efforts to block lockdowns, scorn masks, and sow doubts over vaccines.
Many have demanded the replacement of Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo over his alleged failures in the country’s response to the pandemic. Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco said on Thursday that Brazil’s foreign policy must improve, adding that it was up to Bolsonaro to decide if he would replace Araujo.
Araujo, a fan of former US President Donald Trump, drew condemnation for his barbs against Chinese vaccines and attempt to secure doses from the U.S.
Bolsonaro, who had questioned the “rush” to buy vaccines last year, has pledged to ramp up the country’s inoculation drive, targeting 1 million daily doses, compared with about 350,000 per day over the past week.