‘Things are desperate’: Brazil’s Covid intensive care units are almost all at capacity

The country's sceptic president and his allies continue to downplay the coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 287,000

Brazil's healthcare system has been plunged into the most severe crisis in its history, with doctors overwhelmed and patients dying while they wait for intensive care beds as the country's Covid-sceptic president, Jair Bolsonaro, continued to spurn calls for a lockdown that would save lives.

As the daily number of infections and deaths soared to new heights this week, researchers from Brazil's leading healthcare institute, Fiocruz, said South America's biggest country faced an unparalleled catastrophe".