'Covid is taking over': Brazil plunges into deadliest chapter of its epidemic

Last year, Jair Bolsonaro declared Brazil had reached the tail end' of one of the world's worst outbreaks. Three months later the country has lost almost 100,000 more lives

It was midway through February when Andre Machado realized Brazil's coronavirus catastrophe was racing into a bewildering and remorseless new phase. The floodgates opened and the water came gushing out," recalled the infectious disease specialist from the Our Lady of the Conception hospital in Porto Alegre, one of the largest cities in southern Brazil.

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