Brazil is experiencing a historic collapse of its health service as intensive care units in hospitals run out of capacity. This comes as the country registered its highest daily death toll yet with 2,841 dying within 24 hours.
According to the Country’s leading health institute Fiocruz, Covid-19 units in all but two of Brazil’s 27 states are at 80% capacity and above. Health officials have called on the new health minister to consider imposing a national lockdown.
Marcelo Queiroga, who will be formally appointed as health minister later on Wednesday, is the fourth person to hold the office since the pandemic began.
President Jair Bolsonaro faced widespread criticism over his handling of the pandemic. He constantly opposed quarantine measures introduced by state governors.
He argued that the collateral damage to the economy would be worse than the effects of the virus itself.