Brazil registered 42,725 cases of the new coronavirus in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said Wednesday, as experts warned the country was exiting lockdown too soon.
Brazil, which has had more people killed in the pandemic than any country
except the United States, also reported 1,185 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing its total death toll to 53,830.
The jump in infections was the second-highest in a single day in Brazil since the start of the pandemic. However, officials said the record — 54,771 cases, on June 19 — was due to system backlogs that had led to under-reporting for previous days.
Brazil now has nearly 1.2 million infections in total.
Experts say under-testing in the country of 212 million people means the real numbers are probably much higher.
Despite the ongoing surge in infections and deaths, many states in Brazil are pressing ahead with plans to reopen their economies after months of painful stay-at-home measures to contain the virus.
But many experts warn it is too soon.
