[COVID-19] Brazil Reaches Grim Milestone Of Over 600,000 Deaths

• Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has been heavily criticized for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic

Brazil on Friday surpassed the grim milestone of 600,000 COVID-19 deaths, the second-highest number of fatalities in the world after the United States, according to John Hopkins University data.

The South American nation, which holds half the continent’s population, has now suffered 600,425 coronavirus deaths. It is only the second country to pass the 600,000 mark, after the US which has registered 712,695 deaths.

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has been heavily criticized for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read also: US COVID-19 Death Toll Tops 700,000

The conservative populist leader has repeatedly downplayed the gravity of the outbreak, declared he would not get vaccinated because he had already had COVID-19, and championed the unproven malaria medicine hydroxychloroquine as a treatment.

Over the past year, Bolsonaro has frequently raged against municipal and state-level lockdown orders in Brazil, even during the grimmest moments of the pandemic, when hospitals filled to capacity and whole cities ran out of oxygen.

Earlier this month, thousands of protesters gathered in major cities across Brazil, calling for the President’s impeachment amid worsening economic conditions, rising unemployment, and hunger in the COVID-wracked country.

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