Brazil finally expanding its testing capacity after 117,000 Covid-19 deaths

Beyond its high tallies of cases and deaths, Brazil’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic has been panned on another front: the dearth of effective testing strategies countrywide. The country has recorded over 3.6 million coronavirus cases — second only to the U.S. — yet has tested 66,474 people per million inhabitants, less than fellow South American nations Chile and Peru. Furthermore, only 42 percent of these examinations are RT-PCR tests, seen as the most reliable. Now, however, biological research organization Fiocruz has opened a new testing facility in Rio de Janeiro, capable of processing 15,000 RT-PCR tests per day, along with another lab in Fortaleza, equipped to go through 10,000 daily tests.

The goal is for Brazil to catch up with the likes of the U.S., the United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada in terms of testing capabilities.

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