Public health experts are raising alarm over Brazil this week, as the pandemic-hit nation has reached several grim coronavirus milestones, including a record number of deaths and the possible spread of multiple more-contagious variants.

Brazilian authorities on Tuesday reported nearly 4,200 covid-19 deaths — the country’s highest daily death toll since the pandemic began. The raging outbreak has been fueled by the virulent P.1 variant, and now scientists there say they have identified Brazil’s first case involving a similar, more transmissible variant discovered in South Africa.

Because of the rising number of infections and deaths, officials in Brazil’s most-populous city, Sao Paulo, say they are now adding 600 new graves to municipal cemeteries each day.

Here are some significant developments:
  • The highly contagious coronavirus variant first identified in Britain is now the most common lineage circulating in the United States, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said.
  • Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi received his second dose of a coronavirus vaccine Thursday, as the country reported more than 126,000 new cases, its highest daily surge.
  • The European Medicines Agency said that rare blood clots should be listed as a possible side effect of Oxford-AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine, while its British counterpart suggested that people under 30 receive an alternative vaccine.
  • Cambodia is closing its famed Angkor temple complex to visitors due to a growing coronavirus outbreak that has infected hundreds since it began in February, the Associated Press reported.
  • In the United States, some 30.8 million people have been infected by the virus. More than 558,000 Americans have died due to covid-19.