Brazil health minister, Marcelo Queiroga, announced on Saturday that his country has crossed the grim threshold of 500,000 coronavirus fatalities.

His statement reaffirmed that the South American country is trailing only the United States in the number of lives lost to COVID-19 pandemic.

“500,000 lives lost due to the pandemic that affects our Brazil and the world,” Queiroga tweeted, without giving the death toll from the past 24 hours.

AFP reported that as of Friday, the country’s health ministry had recorded 498,499 deaths, with a daily average of more than 2,000 in the last seven days.

Brazil local media, however, observed that the overall death toll rose to 500,022 on Saturday afternoon when the government released its toll after 2100 GMT.

The country, with a population of 212 million, became the second country after the United States to surpass 500,000 Covid-19 deaths.

Recall that the South American country experienced a second wave of the pandemic this year when it topped 4,000 deaths per day.

Experts are concerned about the slow rollout of the country’s vaccination campaign, the spread of more aggressive virus variants and President Jair Bolsonaro’s hostility toward preventative measures like mask-wearing and lockdown restrictions.

Queiroga tweeted that he was working “tirelessly to vaccinate all Brazilians in the shortest possible time and change this scenario that has plagued us for more than a year.”