How the Czech Republic slipped into a Covid disaster, one misstep at a time

On an epidemiological map of the world, the Czech Republic shows up as a tiny island of doom and gloom. While the global number of new coronavirus cases has been dropping for six consecutive weeks, the Central European nation of 10 million has been experiencing near record levels of new infections.

A new, more infectious variant of the virus has spread across the country, pushing Czech hospitals to the brink of collapse. The country's death toll has just surpassed 20,000. Its death rate is among the highest in the world.

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Brazil's hospitals reach breaking point as health minister blames new coronavirus variants

Sao Paulo (CNN)Hospital ICUs are reaching their limits across Brazil, as health experts and state officials beg the government to impose stricter lockdown measures to reduce coronavirus transmission.

The country's ICU occupancy rates are the worst since the start of the pandemic, according to a Feb 26 report by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), a Brazilian Ministry of Health research institution.

Eighteen of Brazil's 26 states and one federal district have ICU's at over 80% capacity, federal and state data show. Nine of those are at the edge of collapse at over 90% capacity.

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