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Brazil is facing a 'biological Fukushima' and is seeing new Covid variants every week, one of the country's leading health experts has warned. A daily record of 4, 195 deaths were registered on Tuesday, with the latest projections putting Brazil on track for 600, 000 fatalities by July. Miguel Nicolelis, who was until February leading the Covid response team for the northeast region of 60 million people, said Jair Bolsonaro is presiding over 'the largest human tragedy in Brazilian history.' 'It's a nuclear reactor that has set off a chain reaction and is out of control. It's a biological Fukushima, ' Nicolelis said today, referencing the Japanese nuclear disaster triggered by a tsunami in 2011. Paramedics transport a Covid patient to a hospital in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday. Brazil's health system is buckling under the strain of the latest virus wave, which has forced doctors into agonising decisions over which patients to give life-saving care and led cemeteries to hold nighttime burials to deal with the crush of coffins. A daily record of 4, 195 deaths were registered on Tuesday Brazil has reported an average of 62, 855 cases over the last seven days – the third highest figure in the world after India and the United States He told the BBC: 'I think that Brazil is not just the epicentre of the pandemic worldwide, it is a threat to the entire effort of the international community to control the pandemic on the planet. 'If Brazil is not under control the planet is not going to be under control. 'We are brewing new variants every week and some of these are more infectious, more lethal and some of them are going to cross the borders to other countries in South America, Latin America and eventually the whole world.' The country of 212 million people has registered an average of 2, 757 Covid-19 deaths per day over the past week, the highest by far worldwide. Miguel Nicolelis, a neuroscience professor at Duke University, who was until February leading the Covid response team for the northeast region of 60 million people It has recorded 160 deaths per 100, 000 people, behind countries such as the Czech Republic (254) and Britain (187) but still one of the 10 highest rates in the world. Intensive care units are currently more than 90 percent full in 18 of Brazil's 27 states, according to public health institute Fiocruz. All but two of the rest are in the 'critical alert zone' of more than 80 percent occupancy, it said. Experts say the surge is partly caused by a local variant of the virus known as P1 that can re-infect people who have had the original strain and is believed to be more contagious. The government has meanwhile struggled to secure enough vaccines, at times forcing authorities to suspend immunization drives in some areas. Nicolelis laid the blame squarely on Bolsonaro who is facing a political crisis which last Tuesday saw the three heads of the army, navy and the air force all resign. The Duke University professor, who lives in Sao Paulo, believes that the country is on track for around 500, 000 deaths by July 1, but warned that if the rate of transmission increases by just 10 per cent, this figure could rise to 600, 000. The professor said: 'The president of Brazil denied the severity and the gravity of the crisis since the beginning and from that point on, from February, 2020, he basically undermined any major national initiative to get the pandemic under control. illiad-prod.lib.iastate.edu]

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Brazil is facing a ‘biological Fukushima’ and is seeing new Covid variants every week, one of the country’s leading health experts has warned.

A daily record of 4, 195 deaths were registered on Tuesday, with the latest projections putting Brazil on track for 600, 000 fatalities by July.

Miguel Nicolelis, who was until February leading the Covid response team for the northeast region of 60 million people, said Jair Bolsonaro is presiding over ‘the largest human tragedy in Brazilian history.’

‘It’s a nuclear reactor that has set off a chain reaction and is out of control.

It’s a biological Fukushima, ‘ Nicolelis said today, referencing the Japanese nuclear disaster triggered by a tsunami in 2011.

Paramedics transport a Covid patient to a hospital in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday. Brazil’s health system is buckling under the strain of the latest virus wave, which has forced doctors into agonising decisions over which patients to give life-saving care and led cemeteries to hold nighttime burials to deal with the crush of coffins.

A daily record of 4, 195 deaths were registered on Tuesday

Brazil has reported an average of 62, 855 cases over the last seven days – the third highest figure in the world after India and the United States

He told the BBC: ‘I think that Brazil is not just the epicentre of the pandemic worldwide, it is a threat to the entire effort of the international community to control the pandemic on the planet.

‘If Brazil is not under control the planet is not going to be under control.

‘We are brewing new variants every week and some of these are more infectious, more lethal and some of them are going to cross the borders to other countries in South America, Latin America and eventually the whole world.’

The country of 212 million people has registered an average of 2, 757 Covid-19 deaths per day over the past week, the highest by far worldwide.

Miguel Nicolelis, a neuroscience professor at Duke University, who was until February leading the Covid response team for the northeast region of 60 million people

It has recorded 160 deaths per 100, 000 people, behind countries such as the Czech Republic (254) and Britain (187) but still one of the 10 highest rates in the world.

Intensive care units are currently more than 90 percent full in 18 of Brazil’s 27 states, according to public health institute Fiocruz.

All but two of the rest are in the ‘critical alert zone’ of more than 80 percent occupancy, it said.

Experts say the surge is partly caused by a local variant of the virus known as P1 that can re-infect people who have had the original strain and is believed to be more contagious.

The government has meanwhile struggled to secure enough vaccines, at times forcing authorities to suspend immunization drives in some areas.

Nicolelis laid the blame squarely on Bolsonaro who is facing a political crisis which last Tuesday saw the three heads of the army, navy and the air force all resign.

The Duke University professor, who lives in Sao Paulo, believes that the country is on track for around 500, 000 deaths by July 1, but warned that if the rate of transmission increases by just 10 per cent, this figure could rise to 600, 000.

The professor said: ‘The president of Brazil denied the severity and the gravity of the crisis since the beginning and from that point on, from February, 2020, he basically undermined any major national initiative to get the pandemic under control.

illiad-prod.lib.iastate.edu]