He has railed against lockdowns, aired scepticism about vaccines and regularly refuses to wear a mask in public. "The rejection rate of vaccines is really low, it makes other countries jealous," said Alexandre Naime Barbosa, head of epidemiology at Sao Paulo State University. Brazil also appears to have been spared the worst of the Delta variant so far, with registered deaths and cases falling despite the arrival of the more contagious strain. The Health Ministry registered 615 new COVID-19 deaths on Friday, taking the total to 600,425 since the pandemic began. Health experts speculate the early devastating effects in Brazil of the Gamma variant, also called P1, may have tempered the course of the Delta variant, which caused cases elsewhere to spike significantly.

Source: bd News24 October 08, 2021 21:56 UTC