RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Maguito Vilela was elected mayor of the Brazilian city of GoiΓ’nia on Sunday, but he has yet to find out. Thatβs because he has spent much of the last month in an induced coma, breathing via a ventilator because of a severe COVID-19 infection.
His case is a vivid example of the reach of the coronavirus pandemic in Brazil, which has the worldβs worst COVID-19 death toll outside the United States. More than 6.3 million people have been infected and nearly 173,000 have died from the virus, according to Health Ministry data.
