COVID-19 cases and deaths in Brazil 2020-2024

COVID-19 was first detected in Brazil on February 27, 2020, making it the first Latin American country to report a case of the novel coronavirus. Since then, the number of infections has risen drastically, reaching approximately 38 million cases by July 28, 2024. Meanwhile, the first local death due to the disease was reported in March 2020. Four years later, the number of fatal cases had surpassed 700,000. 

The highest COVID-19 death toll in Latin America

With a population of more than 211 million inhabitants as of 2020, Brazil is the most populated country in Latin America. This nation is also among the most affected by COVID-19 in number of deaths, not only within the Latin American region, but also worldwide, just behind the United States. These figures have raised a debate on how the Brazilian government has dealt with the pandemic. In fact, according to a study carried out in May 2021, more than half of Brazilians surveyed disapproved of the way in which former president Jair Bolsonaro had been dealing with the health crisis. In comparison, a third of respondents had a similar opinion about the Ministry of Health.

Brazil’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign rollout

Brazil’s vaccination campaign started at the beginning of 2021, when a nurse from São Paulo became the first person in the country to get vaccinated against the disease. A few years later, roughly 88 percent of the Brazilian population had received at least one vaccine dose, while around 81 percent had already completed the basic immunization scheme. With more than 485.2 million vaccines administered as of March 2023, Brazil was the fourth country with the most administered doses of the COVID-19 vaccine globally, after China, India, and the United States.

Find the most up-to-date information about the coronavirus pandemic in the world under Statista’s COVID-19 facts and figures site.