By NewsDesk  @infectiousdiseasenews

Brazil’s Health ministry has reported an additional 60,000 COVID-19 cases since June 2,putting the country’s total case count at 614,000.

Image by Paula Paulinha from Pixabay

In addition, the death toll has risen to 34,000, surpassing Italy as the country with the third most globally.

Earlier this week, the White House announced the United States Government has delivered two million doses of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to the people of Brazil.  The United States will also soon be sending 1,000 ventilators to Brazil.

According to a US-Brazil joint statement Sunday, HCQ will be used as a prophylactic to help defend Brazil’s nurses, doctors, and healthcare professionals against the virus.  It will also be used as a therapeutic to treat Brazilians who become infected.

Further, in continuation of the two countries’ longstanding collaboration on health issues, we are also announcing a joint United States-Brazilian research effort that will include randomized controlled clinical trials.  These trials will help further evaluate the safety and efficacy of HCQ for both prophylaxis and the early treatment of the coronavirus.

On Thursday, medical journal, The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine retracted studies at the request of the authors of the studies.

The researchers cited concerns related to the integrity of the information provided by the Surgisphere Corporation. After independent reviewers were unable to validate key data from the company to confirm the studies’ findings.