By Pedro Fonseca

RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazil will become the second country to reach 600,000 deaths from COVID-19 on Friday. It is a sad milestone for a government heavily criticized by experts in health for mismanaging this outbreak.

After a slow start to vaccinations, the country is now increasing its efforts and signs are beginning to show that infections are receding. Brazilians are more than 70% to have received their first vaccine, in comparison with 65% of Americans who died in June.

Alexandre Naime Barbosa of Sao Paulo State University’s epidemiology department stated that the rejection rate for vaccines was so low that it “makes other countries jealous.” Brazil needs to stop the spread of pandemics.

Brazil appears to be untouched by the Delta strain, and registered cases as well as deaths have fallen despite being infected with the deadly variant.

The death rate has fallen by 80% since April’s peak at more than 3000 per day. Brazil is now the country with one of its lowest daily deaths.

On Thursday, 451 COVID-19-related deaths were registered by the Health Ministry, bringing the total number of victims to 599.810 since the outbreak.

According to health experts, the Gamma variation, also called P1, had a devastating impact on Brazil’s first cases. This may have helped the Delta variant take a more balanced course and caused other cases to rise significantly.

Fernando Spilki from Feevale University, in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul stated that Delta spread at a fraction of the population because of its high-cost lives.