Brazil registers more than 15,000 Covid-19 deaths as cases top 230,000

With 15,633 deaths and 233,142 confirmed cases, Brazil – whose president Jair Bolsonaro has dismissed the disease as a "little flu" – is at the epicenter of infections in Latin America.

Experts say under-testing means the real figures could be 15 times higher or more, and warn the worst is yet to come.

The sprawling South American country registered 816 deaths and 14,919 new cases in the past 24 hours. Brazil's outbreak is now the fourth-largest in the world, according to official figures.

Despite the rising tolls, Bolsonaro on Saturday attacked lockdown measures taken by some governors to contain the spread of the virus.

"Unemployment, hunger and misery will be the future of those who support the tyranny of total isolation," the far-right president tweeted, a day after Health Minister Nelson Teich resigned after less than a month on the job.

Vice president awaiting Covid-19 test result

Brazil's vice president, Hamilton Mourao, underwent a Covid-19 test and was placed in isolation at his official residence on Saturday, after a public servant who had been near him last week tested positive.

Mourao, 66, will not fulfill official duties on Monday, when the results are expected. Bolsonaro has undergone several coronavirus tests after ministers and other close aides tested positive.

Brazil had processed nearly 338,000 coronavirus tests in official labs by the beginning of the week, according to the Health Ministry, and another 145,000 tests were under analysis or waiting in line. 

Testing in the country still lags far behind European nations.

The pandemic has already claimed more than 312,000 lives worldwide.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)