Brazil records 899 infant deaths from COVID-19 in 2020

Brasilia, April 2 (RHC)-- The Excess Mortality Panel in Brazil reported Thursday that during the past year, 899 infants died from COVID-19, a disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

The official statistics website that groups all deaths in the South American giant indicated in a report that during 2020, a total of 11,996 babies up to one year of age were hospitalized due to coronavirus infection, of which 899 lost their lives.  Likewise, 124 pregnant women died from the respiratory disease last year.

The high infant mortality rate was due, among other factors, to the lack of prenatal care and the high incidence of premature babies in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, reported the newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo.

The teleSUR correspondent André Vieira reported on his Twitter account that another research by the Brazilian Pediatrics Society "shows that, in absolute numbers, 1,203 children and adolescents died from Covid-19 in Brazil in 2020."   Andre Vieira reported: "From the beginning of the year until the beginning of March, another 121 lost their lives to the disease." 

Brazil last month became the global epicenter of the disease by recording some 3,000 deaths per day from Covid-19 on average.  The South American country reported on Thursday that during the last 24 hours 3,769 deaths and 91,097 new infections by the coronavirus were registered.

Brazil accumulates 12,839,844 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with a total of 325,284 deaths.