Brazil is experiencing a new wave of covid-19 and Lula asks to get vaccinated

Sao Paulo, 6 December (EFE).- Brazil recorded 55,908 new cases of covid-19 on Tuesday, the highest daily figure since last July 20 (56,480), confirming the upward trend of recent weeks, in which the president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called to get vaccinated.

According to the bulletin of the National Council of Secretaries of Health (Conass) of Brazil, the country has also recorded 180 deaths associated with the coronavirus in the last 24 hours.

Since the beginning of the pandemic almost three years ago, Brazil has accumulated 35,452,099 infections and 690,409 deaths related to covid-19, making it one of the countries in the world most affected by the disease, according to official data.

80% of the 213 million Brazilians have the full vaccination schedule against the coronavirus, but less than half have received one or two booster doses allowed by health authorities.

The poor adherence to booster doses, together with the resumption of infections in recent weeks, has put health personnel on alert on the eve of the Christmas holidays.

Against this backdrop, Lula, who will assume power on January 1, encouraged Brazilians on Tuesday to update vaccination records.

“Have you taken the fourth dose of the vaccine yet?” Asked the president-elect on his social networks.

Lula won the October election for the current ruler, the far-right Jair Bolsonaro, who has consistently questioned the severity of the pandemic, censured the use of social distancing measures and questioned the effectiveness of masks and vaccines.

Despite the denial of the head of state, the Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, reiterated the importance of obtaining booster doses of the vaccine.

“I want to remind you that more than 69 million Brazilians have not taken the first booster dose against covid-19 and that 32.8 million could have received the second booster dose against the disease, but have not yet been vaccinated,” he said. said Queiroga. month, when cases were already starting to rise in the country.

Since then, some Brazilian states have once again adopted timid measures to contain the contagion, such as in São Paulo, the most populous and richest in the country, where the use of the mask on public transport is once again mandatory. EFE extension

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