Brazil is the country with the second highest number of deaths and confirmed cases of the disease, after the United States, and is currently facing the worst phase of the pandemic. | Photo: EFE

Brasilia, April 10 (RHC)-- Brazil surpassed 4,000 deaths in 24 hours for the second time this week due to COVID-19, evidencing that the country is at the worst moment of the pandemic.

According to the National Council of Health Secretaries (Conass), in the last day the South American giant reported 4,249 deaths, setting a new record in the number of deaths from the virus.

With the update, the country has 345,024 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, in March 2020.

During the current week Brazil recorded 4,195 deaths on Tuesday, 3,829 on Wednesday and 4,249 on Thursday, that is, 12,273 in just three days, almost the same number as Bolivia (12,366) in the entire pandemic, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).

As for the number of new infections, the Conass indicated that 86,652 cases were registered, bringing the total number of confirmed infections to 13,279,857.  The data on the number of infections reveal an increase above the average of the last seven days, which was 62,859.

Brazil is the country with the second highest number of deaths and confirmed cases of the disease, after the United States, and is currently facing the worst phase of the pandemic, with public hospitals overwhelmed by the increase in admissions due to COVID-19.

The director of Brazil's National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), Antonio Barra Torres, admitted Thursday that the pandemic "is far from its end."  "There is no conviction among us that the worst phase is over," he said with resignation in an appearance before a Senate committee.

On Thursday, Federal Supreme Court Justice Luís Roberto Barroso ordered the Senate to set up a commission of inquiry to investigate alleged "omissions" on the part of the Executive in the handling of the pandemic.

The new record number of deaths comes on a day in which the full Supreme Court endorsed the closure of churches and temples, authorized in a monocratic manner by one of the eleven justices of the high court and supported by the President.

Since the beginning of last March, Brazil has been declared the epicenter of COVID-19 in the world, surpassing the United States in the daily number of deaths and infections.