Coronavirus death toll passes 1,000 in Brazil

Brazil, the hardest-hit Latin American country in the coronavirus pandemic, passed the mark of 1,000 deaths on Friday, the health ministry said.

The ministry's latest figures gave a toll of 19,638 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 1,056 deaths -- one fewer than it had indicated in an initial tally earlier in the day.

With a worldwide death toll of more than 100,000, Brazil's figure is still relatively small compared to the number of deaths in countries such as Italy (more than 18,000), the United States (nearly 17,000) and Spain (nearly 16,000). But health officials are bracing for things to get worse.

Experts predict the outbreak will only start to peak in Brazil toward late April.

There are fears for what that could mean in the country's poorest areas, especially the favelas -- crowded, impoverished slums in cities such as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro that typically lack basic health and sanitation infrastructure.

President Jair Bolsonaro meanwhile faces a firestorm of criticism for downplaying COVID-19, calling it a "little flu" and the reaction to it "hysteria."
Disapproval of the president has risen amid the pandemic, according to recent opinion polls. He faces nightly protests by confined residents in Brazil's biggest cities, who bang pots and pans from their windows, shouting "Get out, Bolsonaro!"