Brazil's COVID-19 death count passes 4 lakh mark

Brazil : The death count in Brazil due to coronavirus has crossed 4,00,000 mark on Friday. The health ministry reported 3,001 deaths due to COVID-19 in last 24 hours, taking the total 401,186.

With this Brazil stands at second position after the United States in a tally with most lives lost to coronavirus.

With 212 million people, the South American giant also has one of the highest mortality rates in the pandemic, at 189 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants -- the worst in the Americas and 14th worldwide.

Brazil has been devastated by an unprecedented surge in the number of coronavirus cases since the beginning of the year, leading to collapse of the medical system.

Some reports have claimed that Brazil has passed the peak of its second wave. But the death count remains pretty high at an average of 2,526 over the past week, behind only India.

Experts blame the latest surge on the "Brazil variant" of the virus, a mutation that emerged in or around the Amazon rainforest city of Manaus in December.

Known as P1, it can reinfect people who have had the original strain of the virus, and may be more contagious.

Around 28 million people in Brazil have received a first Covid-19 vaccine dose, just over 13 percent of the population.

Around 12.7 people have received the second dose of vaccine.