MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil's death toll in twelve months of coronavirus, 250,000

The country has averaged roughly 1,000 deaths from COVID-19 daily in recent weeks, similar to the peak of the virus in the country last July

One year ago on Thursday, Brazil confirmed its first case of coronavirus. The same day it recorded a quarter of a million deaths from the disease the virus causes and more than 10 million cases since the beginning of the pandemic.

The country has averaged roughly 1,000 deaths from COVID-19 daily in recent weeks — similar to the peak of the virus in the country last July, according to statistics from the country’s ministry of health.

President Jair Bolsonaro, who fell ill with COVID-19 last year, has repeatedly downplayed the seriousness of the virus and has said he will not be vaccinated against it. Brazil has confirmed more than 10 million cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. It has the second-highest death rate in the world, following the United States.

Roughly five weeks after the first shot against the virus was administered in Brazil, the country has vaccinated about 3.6% of its population, according to Our World in Data, a research site.