SAO PAULO, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Brazil reported an accumulative 11,019,344 COVID-19 cases as of Sunday amid a second wave of the outbreak of the disease, the Brazilian Ministry of Health said. Meanwhile, a total of 1,086 people died in the last 24 hours, a record for a Sunday, bringing the national death toll to 265,411, the ministry said. The countrys hospital network was on the edge of collapse due to the second wave generated by the P1 variant, which is more contagious and lethal than the original strain. The states of Mato Grosso, Santa Catarina, Parana, and Rio Grande do Sul have reported 100 percent capacity in intensive care units, with lines of patients waiting for beds. The governments of those states have requested other states to accept and treat their patients. The state of Sao Paulo, the most populous in the country, announced local hospitals were at 80 percent occupancy, and that a field hospital would be opened in the state capital. Given the appearance of the new variant and the high level of hospital occupancy, many states have banned non-essential trade and enacted curfews to discourage the formation of crowds.
