Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Brazil recorded 2,233 new COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, the second highest daily increase, taking the national death toll to 272,889, the Health Ministry said Thursday.

The daily increase was only next to Wednesday's figure, which stood at 2,286.

In addition, 75,412 new COVID-19 infections were registered, the third highest number since the beginning of the pandemic,, bringing the country's accumulated caseload to 11,277,717.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s hospitals are faltering as a highly contagious coronavirus variant tears through the country, the president insists on unproven treatments and the only attempt to create a national plan to contain COVID-19 has just fallen short.

RIO DE JANEIRO, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Brazil on Tuesday saw record high daily COVID-19 deaths at 1,972 in 24 hours, bringing the national toll to 268,370.

Meanwhile, the country reported 70,764 new COVID-19 cases, taking the nationwide tally to 11,122,429, said the Ministry of Health.

Brazil has the second highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the world, after the United States, and the third highest number of cases, behind the United States and India.

SAO PAULO (AP) — A Supreme Court justice on Monday annulled all convictions against former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a ruling that potentially would allow him to run again for the presidency next year.

The decision also laid bare the country’s political divisions, with leftists celebrating their 75-year-old leader’s return to the political arena as conservatives said the rulings were tantamount to impunity.

SAO PAULO, Mar 8 (NNN-CMA) – The Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, the largest grain producer in the country, announced yesterday that, its hospital network has begun to collapse, as there is a lack of intensive care beds, due to the increasing number of patients from COVID-19.

The health authorities of Mato Grosso said in a statement that, 59 patients needing intensive care beds have been turned away from the state’s hospitals, and the state has asked other areas to treat the patients.

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Humans have degraded or destroyed roughly two-thirds of the world’s original tropical rainforest cover, new data reveals – raising alarm that a key natural buffer against climate change is quickly vanishing.

The forest loss is also a major contributor of climate-warming emissions, with the dense tropical forest vegetation representing the largest living reservoir of carbon.

SAO PAULO, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Brazil reported an accumulative 11,019,344 COVID-19 cases as of Sunday amid a second wave of the outbreak of the disease, the Brazilian Ministry of Health said.

Meanwhile, a total of 1,086 people died in the last 24 hours, a record for a Sunday, bringing the national death toll to 265,411, the ministry said.

The country's hospital network was on the edge of collapse due to the second wave generated by the P1 variant, which is more contagious and lethal than the original strain.

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday said that emergency payments to aid the poor in the pandemic could vary from 150 reais to more than 300 reais ($26.36-$52.72), while a plan being considered in Congress provides for cash transfers of 250 reais.

“We made an agreement, if I’m not mistaken, of 42 billion reais for four months of installments of 250 (reais), on average,” he told supporters outside his official residence.

“Why on average? There’s a story of a single mother or I don’t know what, so it will vary from 150 to 300 reais and a bit.”

RIO DE JANEIRO, March 5. /TASS/: Brazilian authorities are expecting to receive the first shipment of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine no earlier than in April, a document published on the Health Ministry’s website Thursday notes.

It is noted that the contract is yet to be signed.

BRASILIA, March 3 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said he would suspend a tax on diesel fuel, to try and placate truckers, but the government would instead hike taxes on banks to offset lost revenue.

In a video posted to social media, Bolsonaro said the decree would suspend both the so-called PIS/Cofins tax on diesel and taxes on cooking gas for two months.

“The decrees should be published early Tuesday to zero cooking gas federal taxes and PIS/COFINS for diesel for 2 months,” he said.