The number of coronavirus deaths in Brazil has surpassed half a million as experts warn the outbreak there may worsen due to delayed vaccinations and government failures.

The number of deaths has risen to 500,800 after a further 2,301 fatalities were confirmed in the past 24 hours, the health ministry has confirmed.

The country has averaged 2,000 deaths per day over the past week.

Brazil is reported to be experiencing the world’s second-deadliest outbreak as it has the worst official death toll outside the United States.

Only 11% of Brazilians have been fully vaccinated and epidemiologists warn that, with winter arriving in the southern hemisphere and new variants of the coronavirus circulating, deaths will continue to mount even if immunisations gain steam.

Gonzalo Vecina, former head of Brazilian health regulator Anvisa, said: “I think we are going to reach 700,000 or 800,000 deaths before we get to see the effects of vaccination.

“We are experiencing the arrival of these new variants and the Indian variant will send us for a loop.”

Mr Vecina also criticized far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic, including the lack of a coordinated national response and his scepticism toward vaccines, lockdowns and mask-wearing requirements.

Raphael Guimaraes, a researcher at the Fiocruz biomedical centre in Brazil, said delays in the vaccination program in Latin America’s most populous nation meant its full effects would not be felt until September or later.

Mr Guimaraes warned that Brazil could revisit scenes from the worst of its March-April peak, when the country averaged 3,000 deaths per day.

He said: “We are still in an extremely critical situation, with very high transmission rates and hospital bed occupancy that is still critical in many places.”

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