AKIPRESS.COM - Brazil has overtaken Britain as the country with the world’s second-highest Covid-19 death toll after a further 843 deaths pushed its total to 41,901.

The tally was published on Friday night by a coalition of news outlets which has been compiling independent statistics since Brazil’s health ministry was accused of seeking to conceal the full figures last week, AL Jazeera reports. 

According to the British government 41,481 lives have been lost in the UK since late January although the number rises to more than 50,000 when suspected cases are included. Brazil’s death toll is also considered an underestimate.

Only in the US, where the official death toll stands at more than 116,000, have more died.

Medical experts have voiced despair at what they call Jair Bolsonaro’s calamitous response to the pandemic.