SAO PAULO, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Brazil reported more than 294,000 deaths from the COVID-19, with 1,290 deaths registered in a day, the Ministry of Health said on Sunday.
Brazil has recorded a total of 294,042 deaths and 11,998,233 confirmed cases as of Sunday, with 47,774 new cases reported in the last 24 hours.
The state of Sao Paulo, the epicenter of the pandemic in the South American country, has reported 91 percent occupancy in intensive care units, with dozens of hospitals overwhelmed due to high demand, according to data from the state health authorities.
Deaths of people under 60 years of age increased by 35 percent in the first half of March compared with the same period last year, due to the new variant of the virus.
"We are seeing young patients without pre-existing diseases show a serious form of the disease, something we had not seen before," Guilherme Barcelos, a doctor at the Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre, told local media.
The state of Rio Grande do Sul on Sunday was on the edge of collapse of its healthcare system, with the longest queues for intensive care unit beds. Enditem
