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Brazil's coronavirus death toll tops 15,000 as Bolsonaro attacks lockdown measures

WION Web Team
New DelhiUpdated: May 17, 2020, 08:27 AM IST
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Coronavirus in Brazil Photograph:(Reuters)

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The number of infections in Brazil topped 230,000, making it the country with the fourth-highest number of cases in the world.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro attacked the lockdown measures taken by some governors to contain the spread of the virus as the country's death toll passed 15,000 on Saturday due to novel coronavirus.

The number of infections in Brazil topped 230,000, making it the country with the fourth-highest number of cases in the world.

With 15,633 deaths and 233,142 confirmed cases, Brazil -- whose president has dismissed the disease as a "little flu" -- is at the epicenter of infections in Latin America. 

Experts say under-testing means the real figures could be 15 times higher or more, and warn the worst is yet to come.

The South American country registered 816 deaths and 14,919 new cases in the past 24 hours.

"Unemployment, hunger and misery will be the future of those who support the tyranny of total isolation," the far-right president tweeted, a day after Health Minister Nelson Teich resigned after less than a month on the job.

The president insists business closures and stay-at-home orders are unnecessarily damaging the economy.

The pandemic has already claimed almost 310,000 lives worldwide.