The coronavirus outbreak in Brazil may worsen due to the slow vaccination of the population and the inaction of the authorities.

In Brazil, more than 500 thousand people have already died from the coronavirus. This was reported by Reuters on Saturday, June 19.

Only 11% of Brazilians are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. At the same time, with the arrival of winter in the southern hemisphere and with the spread of new variants of the coronavirus, an increase in mortality is expected.

As of Friday, Brazil has recorded 498,499 deaths out of 17,801,462 confirmed COVID-19 cases — the highest death toll outside the United States. In total, during the last week in Brazil, an average of 2 thousand people died per day.

“I think we will reach 700,000 or 800,000 deaths before we see the effects of vaccination,” said Gonzalo Vecina, former head of Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa.

He criticized President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic, in particular, including the lack of a coordinated national response and his skepticism about vaccines, lockdowns, and mask-wearing requirements, which he sought to weaken.

Earlier, protests were held in Brazil because of the president’s policy to combat COVID. Tens of thousands of Brazilians demanded the impeachment of the country’s president because of his actions to combat the coronavirus.