Brazil's death toll in the coronavirus pandemic has reached over 300,000 as a deadly surge that has pushed hospitals to the brink made it the second country after the United States to pass the bleak milestone.
A total of 300,685 people in Brazil have now died of Covid-19, the health ministry said, as the country struggles to deal with a big rise in the number of cases blamed on a local variant of the virus that is believed to be more contagious.
Brazil currently has the highest daily death toll in the pandemic by far. It has more than tripled since the start of the year, to an average of 2,273 for the past week.
President Jair Bolsonaro announced the launch of a crisis committee to deal with the pandemic, a change of course amid mounting