Spreading faster, hitting harder – why young Brazilians are dying of Covid

Highly transmissible variant and behavioural factors blamed as intensive care units fill with younger patients

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One month after Michel Castro's premature brush with death, the coronavirus infection has receded but the nightmares persist.

In them the 31-year-old father relives the spine-chilling scenes he witnessed as his Covid-hit body battled for survival in a Rio ICU. The six-month-old baby who appeared to be suffocating right next to him. The man urinating blood after his kidneys failed. The unnerving bleep-bleep-bleep of machines warning doctors that yet another life was on the line.