Via DW Brasil: Brazil exceeds 300 thousand deaths by covid-19. And that's an undercount. Excerpt from the Google translation:
This Wednesday (March 24), Brazil surpassed the mark of 300 thousand deaths by covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.
The country recorded 1,999 deaths associated with the coronavirus, according to data released by the National Council of Health Secretaries (Conass).
The new numbers raise the total number of deaths to 300,675. The country reaches that sad mark just two and a half months after registering 200 thousand deaths.
89,414 new cases of the disease were also identified, according to Conass. As a result, the total number of infections identified in the country rose to 12,219,433.
This Tuesday, Brazil had recorded a record number of deaths, with 3,251 victims in 24 hours.
The drop in the daily death count on Wednesday comes after the Ministry of Health changed the criteria for registering patients in the Influenza Epidemiological Surveillance Information System (Sivep-Flu), which includes those infected with the coronavirus.
The change ended up causing artificial drops in the death count by covid-19.
The change in the criteria for registering deaths due to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome was widely criticized by state and municipal authorities, which led the ministry to reverse the decision.
However, the change in criteria had already affected the numbers of deaths already released by some states, including São Paulo, the most affected by the disease in the entire country. Conass reports in its daily balance that the data for Amapá and Ceará have not been updated due to technical problems.