Brazil Records Over 1,000 New COVID-19 Deaths, Cases Surpass 1.8 Million

COVID-19 cases in Brazil are continuing to surge.

On Saturday, the country recorded 1,071 new deaths, with a total of 1,839,850 confirmed cases, Reuters reports. Brazil is the world’s No. 2 coronavirus hotspot, only second to the U.S. The South American country has a total of 71,469 deaths, according to the Health Ministry.

Earlier this month, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tested positive for the virus after spending months flouting its seriousness. His test results arrived just after he had gone to a Fourth of July celebration with Todd Chapman, the United States ambassador to Brazil. At the time of his announcement, Bolsonaro said he will self-isolate and that he had already started taking the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine. He’s consistently downplayed the severity of the virus by going out in public with little worry for social distancing or wearing a mask.

Trump has also disregarded the gravity of COVID-19. During a press conference in mid-June, he said, “if we stopped testing right now, we would have very few cases—if any.” Then a few days later, he associated it with the common flu, saying, “what difference?”

However, on Saturday, Trump was seen wearing a mask on-camera for the first time while visiting Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he saw wounded soldiers and essential workers who were caring for those affected by COVID-19.