Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 4 (NNN-CMA) – The Brazilian Ministry of Health said, the country registered another 599 deaths from COVID-19, in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 145,987.

According to the ministry, 26,310 new cases of the virus were registered over the last day, bringing the total to 4,906,833.

Brazil is the second country in the world in the number of deaths caused by COVID-19, behind the United States, and third in the world in number of cases, behind the United States and India.

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday nominated a judge with a record of flexible rulings to the country’s Supreme Court, frustrating evangelical members of his conservative base who had been promised one of their own for the opening.

Bolsonaro announced his nomination of Kassio Marques on Thursday during a live broadcast on Facebook and submitted his name to the country’s official gazette on Friday. Marques, 48, little known by political heavyweights in the capital Brasilia, requires confirmation by Brazil’s Senate.

BRASILIA, Sept 28 (NNN-Xinhua) — Brazil reported 335 more deaths from the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 141,741.

According to the health ministry, tests in the same period detected 14,318 new cases of infection, taking the total caseload to 4,732,309.

Authorities in the southeast states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, which have the highest death tolls in the country, were concerned that the crowds at beaches over the weekend would worsen the transmission of the virus.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A cloud of uncertainty that has hung over Rio de Janeiro throughout the coronavirus pandemic has been lifted, but gloom remains — the annual Carnival parade of flamboyant samba schools won’t be held in February.

And while the decision is being characterized as a postponement of the event, no new date has been set.

Rio’s League of Samba Schools, LIESA, announced Thursday night that the spread of the coronavirus has made it impossible to safely hold the traditional parades that are a cultural mainstay and, for many, a source of livelihood.

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil’s former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, barred from elected office due to corruption convictions, said he is open to backing any candidate who can beat far-right President Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 elections.

“I am prepared to support any candidate who is committed to the working people of Brazil and against Bolsonaro,” Lula told Reuters on Friday in an interview via video conference.

Brasilia (Brazil), Sep 14 (AP/PTI) A vast swath of a vital wetlands is burning in Brazil, sweeping across several national parks and obscuring the sun behind dense smoke.

Preliminary figures from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, based on satellite images, indicate that nearly 5,800 square miles (1.5 million hectares) have burned in the Pantanal region since the start of August an expanse comparable to the area consumed by the historic blazes now afflicting California. It's also well beyond the previous fire season record from 2005.

BRASILIA, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Brazilian government has created an inter-ministerial working group to coordinate the procurement and distribution of vaccines against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), according to an announcement published in the government's Official Gazette on Thursday.

Under the coordination of the Ministry of Health, the group will collaborate in the planning of a national strategy for voluntary immunization against the novel coronavirus.

Rio de Janeiro, Sep 7 (AP/PTI) Suellen de Souza could no longer endure the confinement. After six months of precautions, the Brazilian nursing technician decided that Sunday would be her first day at the beach since the pandemic began.

"This week it was very hot... the truth is I really wanted to come" to the beach, said the 21-year-old at Rio de Janeiro's Ipanema beach, which is technically still closed to sun-bathers though few respect the prohibition and authorities seldom enforce it.

SAO PAULO (AP) — Critics of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro are again speaking out against the leader’s stance on the coronavirus pandemic, this time rejecting his view that vaccination for the virus shouldn’t be mandatory.

Bolsonaro’s first such comments came Monday, when he told a supporter, “No one can force anyone to get a vaccine.” He repeated it Thursday night during a live broadcast on Facebook, adding his opposition to administering vaccines that are yet to be proven on Brazilian soil.

SAO PAULO, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Brazil on Monday said its COVID-19 death toll surpassed 121,000 deaths after 553 more patients died in the previous 24 hours, which took the total number of fatalities to 121,381.

In the same 24-hour period, tests detected 45,961 new cases of infection, pushing the total caseload to 3,908,272, according to the Ministry of Health.

On a positive note, Brazil saw its fifth consecutive day of less than 1,000 fatalities from the novel coronavirus.