Brazil turns to local industry to build ventilators as China supplies fail

Brazil's Health Minister Luis Henrique Mandetta said on Wednesday that the country's attempts to purchase medical supplies from China to fight the coronavirus epidemic were failing and the government is turning to Brazilian companies to make ventilators.

Mandetta reported the first case of coronavirus among the Yanomami people on the country's largest reservation and said the government plans to build a field hospital for indigenous communities that are vulnerable to contagion.

Confirmed cases of coronavirus soared to 15,927 on Wednesday, with the death toll rising by 133 in just 24 hours to 800, the ministry said.

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