Brazil on April 8 set a daily record of 4,249 Covid-19 deaths, with overwhelmed hospitals running low on supplies and the Senate about to open an investigation into the response of the government of President Jair Bolsonaro, who has played down the pandemic from the start.

Coronavirus-related deaths worldwide crossed 3 million on April 6, according to a Reuters tally, as the latest global resurgence of Covid-19 infections is challenging vaccination efforts across the globe.

Topline results from an investigator-initiated trial in Brazil show that treatment with Kintor Pharmaceutical’s proxalutamide cut mortality risk by 92 percent and significantly shortened the median length of hospital stay by nine days compared with standard of care in hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease 2019.

New Covid-19 cases continue to decline in North America, but in Latin America infections are still rising, particularly in Brazil where a resurgence has caused record daily deaths, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warned on March 10.

The Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE was able to neutralize a new variant of the coronavirus spreading rapidly in Brazil, according to a laboratory study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on March 8.

Preliminary data from a study conducted at the University of Oxford indicates that the Covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca is effective against the Brazilian variant P1, a source with knowledge of the study told Reuters on March 5.

The World Health Organization listed AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, widening access in the developing world, while sources said the EU is in talks with Moderna on buying more vaccines.

Sinovac Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine was approved for use by the general public by China’s medical products regulator.

More than 1 million people have died from Covid-19 in North and South America, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said.

Larger clinical trials are needed to assess whether Roche’s Actemra (tocilizumab) can cut death rates among the sickest Covid-19 patients after a small study found the arthritis drug was no better than standard care in severe cases.