Brazil hits 700,000 deaths from COVID-19

Brazil’s Ministry of Health on Tuesday (Mar. 29) reported the 700,000th death from COVID-19 in the country. Last March 11 marks three years since WHO declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic. Since then, it has caused many impacts on the lives of survivors and those who lost beloved ones to the disease.

In a statement, the Health Ministry stressed that vaccination is the main way to combat the health crisis and protect against severe cases and deaths caused by the disease.

"Increasing vaccination coverage against COVID-19 is a priority of the Ministry of Health, which launched the National Movement for Vaccination in late February. So far, more than 6 million bivalent booster doses have been administered. However, it is important to emphasize that priority groups should be vaccinated," the note reads.

People included in these priority groups can receive a bivalent booster dose against COVID-19. It protects against the original variant of the virus and against the strains that emerged later, including Omicron, the variant of concern now.