This file photo taken on April 15, 2021 shows the graves of COVID-19 victims at the Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery in Manaus, Amazonas state, Brazil. (MICHAEL DANTAS / AFP)

Despite significant efforts to contain the crisis, Brazil continued to struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic. The South American nation has the world’s second highest death toll due to the virus, and the numbers are still rising.

With a population of over 212 million people, Brazil recorded over 608,000 virus-linked deaths as of Nov 5, according to latest data from the World Health Organization, making it second only to the United States, where the toll stands at more than 768,000. In terms of infections, Brazil ranks third in the world, with over 21.8 million cases, after the US and India.

Brazil has had four health ministers since the COVID-19 pandemic started. The country’s response to the pandemic has divided the country to the point that a Senate panel recommended the president be charged with crimes against humanity in relation to the more than 600,000 deaths from the pandemic

The pandemic woes persist even though the country has secured enough vaccines for its population.

There are many who believe that a lack of action — the federal government was slow to implement any kind of lockdown or mask mandate, apart from the president refusing the vaccine himself — not only divided public opinion but also hurt the response to the health threat.

“The result is the second highest death rate in the world. Misinformation campaigns, lack of leadership, including by keeping an active army general with no health-related experience as the minister of health for almost a year, challenges to good science and supporting hoaxes, such as the ‘COVID-oriented pre-exposure’ or ‘early treatment’ kit, which supported off-label use of chloroquine,” led to the current situation, said Benny Spiewak, a lawyer and partner at SPLaw, which specializes in the life sciences.

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Brazil has had four health ministers since the COVID-19 pandemic started. The country’s response to the pandemic has divided the country to the point that a Senate panel recommended the president be charged with crimes against humanity in relation to the more than 600,000 deaths from the pandemic.

The federal structure of the country may have also played a role in the mismanagement of the pandemic, some observers say.

“The federal government had an extremely limited performance because the Supreme Court decided that the states and municipalities would have autonomy to enforce their own policies,” said Marcelo Brisolla, a lawyer and a consultant in Rio de Janeiro.

Spiewak from SPLaw said the federal government and the president himself did what they could to minimize the therapeutic effects of the vaccine. More than 25 percent of Brazilians take views of the president seriously and became openly opposed to controlling measures, such as masks and lockdowns.

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“Since the beginning, I have seen with incredulity the government's actions and the fact that it did not want to follow what the health experts recommended,” said Ana Rodrigues, a 26-year-old biology student in Rio de Janeiro.

“The (replacement) of health ministers who tried to act in a minimally sensible way, the president's illogical speeches without any commitment to the truth, the insistence on recommending drugs that have been scientifically proven to be ineffective for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19, the cuts in funding for science in Brazil, among many other acts made me feel helpless.”

Brazil has so far fully vaccinated over 112 million people, with around 276 million vaccine doses administered.

Anvisa, the country's healthcare surveillance agency has approved multiple vaccines, including Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech’s CoronaVac, which is produced and packaged in the state of Sao Paulo by the Butantan Institute.

Other vaccines available in the country are Pfizer’s Comirnaty and AstraZeneca’s AZD1222. In Rio de Janeiro, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, a publicly funded biomedical institute commonly known as Fiocruz, uses Chinese active pharmaceutical ingredients to produce the jabs.

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But despite vaccine availability, the COVID crisis continued to escalate, prompting questions over the government’s handling of the situation.

Even as the healthcare situation remains worrisome, Brazil is moving toward reopening in an effort to give the economy a boost. The famed annual Carnival in Rio, which is a huge tourist draw, is set to be held in February.

The writer is a freelance journalist for China Daily.