Brazil's daily new COVID-19 infections appear to be on a downtrend but cases are still in the thousands, raising concerns about how many more people will be infected.
Thousands Still Being Infected
The Health Ministry revealed that there were 30,476 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Sunday, with 522 new fatalities from the fast-spreading disease.
Brazil's numbers have seen a very slight decline but the thousands in daily increases are still a huge problem for health authorities who believe the government can still do more in preventing new infections.
The current administration under President Jair Bolsonaro has received sharp criticism from global and local health leaders who have been calling out the government for lack of strict implementation of anti-coronavirus guidelines.
Record-Week for Brazil
Brazil also experienced a week of record-high COVID-19 cases last week, with 259,105 new coronavirus infections in the seven days ending Sunday, as confirmed by the health ministry.
Due to the record-high new cases in the country, Brazil remains the second hardest-hit country in the world and the health system continues to be overwhelmed by the thousands of daily new cases.
While protests have been going on in the country since the pandemic started, there have been global protests in other countries as well such as Barcelona and London. The protesters called on the Brazilian government due to its alleged mismanagement of the crisis.
The protests in Rio de Janeiro have become physical at some point, with the police using batons to control crowds of people calling on Bolsonaro to improve the health system and implementation of anti-coronavirus guidelines.
Worldwide Protests Demand for Bolsonaro's Resignation
The tagline "Stop Bolsonaro" became a worldwide trend over the weekend as several of Brazil's main cities saw sprawling crowds of people demanding for Bolsonaro to step down.
In over 20 other countries around the world, the same demands rang out, with many protesters referring to Bolsonaro as a threat to not just the Brazilian democracy but also to the global democracy.
The protests came even after the country signed a deal with AstraZeneca in developing an experimental vaccine that is widely expected to become the official COVID-19 vaccine should it be approved.
Vaccine Deal Overshadowed by Protests
On Saturday, it was confirmed that Brazil signed a $127 million deal to locally produce AstraZeneca's experimental vaccine that the World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes as a leading potential vaccine against the novel coronavirus.
However, high hopes for the vaccine were quenched on Sunday, when news of the protests overshadowed what could have been a victory for Brazil after the AstraZeneca deal.
The people's cry for Bolsonaro to leave office and hand the crisis down to someone more capable of controlling the spread of COVID-19 overthrew efforts to somehow calm down the Brazilian masses and global protesters who want change.
As of Sunday evening, Brazil logged a total of 1,345,254 confirmed coronavirus cases and 57,658 deaths.
