Brazil COVID cases up, world death toll nears 2 million

(15 Jan 2021) As the global death toll from COVID-19 approaches the two million mark, there's concern in Brazil that the pandemic shows little sign of abating.   Health authorities are scrambling to deal with multiple emergencies caused by a relentless increase in infections, while gearing up for mass vaccinations scheduled to begin by the end of January.   Brazil has the world's second-highest number of COVID deaths, more than 200,000. And the numbers keep rising, prompting authorities to consider imposing restrictions in some cities to slow the spread.   But any sense that Brazil was in the middle of a deadly pandemic was nowhere to be seen Thursday on the crowded beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema in Rio de Janeiro. Even people who seemed aware of the scale of the crisis were out in public, enjoying the sunshine. "I'm really frightened, unsettled about it (two million deaths globally), that so many people died for nothing," said Stela Nahuz, aged 77. "Of course there were people that could not be saved due to underlying health conditions and so on, but because there are no hospital beds? That's too much." In Niteroi, across the bay from Rio de Janeiro, dozens of cars lined up at a COVID test centre, filled with people anxious about the growing pandemic. "It's frightening, frightening that in the 21st century we are in this situation," said 52-year-old Herilda Almada as she waited for a free COVID test. Most cities in Brazil have imposed only a few restrictions, if any, to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Many appear to suffer from "pandemic fatigue" and are determined to carry on as normal, reflecting President Jair Bolsonaro's attitude towards a disease that he famously dismissed as "a little flu." Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...