COVID-19 cases and deaths are climbing in Portugal’s popular tourist hotspots like Lisbon, Porto and the Algarve region.


Charlotte Peet is a freelance journalist based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She covers human-rights and social issues, music, culture and travel in Braz... il and wider Latin America.
COVID-19 cases and deaths are climbing in Portugal’s popular tourist hotspots like Lisbon, Porto and the Algarve region.

Informal settlements have sprung up across the country amid Brazil’s ongoing COVID-19 crisis and its economic fallout.
![Residents of the 'First of May Refugee Camp' were evicted last week from land that belongs to state oil firm Petrobras and that they had occupied in Itaguai, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, making a difficult situation worse for thousands who had called the settlement home [Ian Cheibub/Al Jazeera]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/21eviction.jpg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)
Health officials in the Brazilian Amazon, still reeling from a health system collapse, fear a third wave is on the way.
![Hospitals in Manaus, the capital of Brazil's Amazonas state, ran out of oxygen and other critical supplies in January amid a surge in COVID-19 infections [File: Bruno Kelly/Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2021-02-25T2245.jpg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)
Rights activists and residents urge independent probe into deadly Brazilian police operation in Jacarezinho favela.
![People protest against police violence after a deadly police operation in Rio de Janeiro's Jacarezinho favela, in Sao Paulo, Brazil on May 8 [Amanda Perobelli/Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/brazil-violence-reuters.jpg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)
Brazil’s police said crackdown on drug trafficking was justified but residents denounce ‘execution-style killings’.
![Residents take pictures of blood on the street after a police operation targeting suspected drug traffickers in the Jacarezinho favela of Rio de Janeiro on Thursday [Silvia Izquierdo/AP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/AP_21126671767274.jpg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)
Brazil’s South American neighbours worry a COVID-19 variant will spread quickly and lead to another wave of deaths.
![A patient suffering from COVID-19 is transported at a field hospital in Santo Andre, Brazil, April 7, 2021 [Amanda Perobelli/Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/2021-04-07T213340Z_455970782_RC29RM9NW7ZE_RTRMADP_3_HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-BRAZIL-1.jpg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)
Experts say younger patients are developing severe COVID-19 symptoms and dying, as hospitals are pushed to the brink.
![Nurse Danila Bassi holds the hand of Marley das Gracas, 42, who tested positive for COVID-19, inside an ambulance, in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil, on March 24 [Amanda Perobelli/Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2021-03-24T223926Z_310120042_RC2YHM9GDMB1_RTRMADP_3_HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-BRAZIL.jpg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)
Several states report critical stock levels, loans of cylinders and even transfer of patients who require oxygen.
![A COVID-19 patient is transferred to the intensive care unit of Hospital Sao Paulo in Sao Paulo, Brazil, March 17, 2021 [File: Amanda Perobelli/Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2021-03-17T210625Z_299061956_RC29DM9796QD_RTRMADP_3_HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-BRAZIL-ICU.jpg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)
Judge’s decision opens door for former president to run in 2022 elections, but legal experts say many questions remain.
![A supporter of Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva holds a sign reading 'Lula free' during a protest in front of the Supreme Court in Brasilia, Brazil, on March 9 [Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2021-03-09T202236Z_660897691_RC2W7M9VAXNW_RTRMADP_3_BRAZIL-POLITICS-LULA.jpg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)
Brazil’s vulnerable communities embrace urban farming as food insecurity rises during the COVID-19 pandemic.
![The Horta de Manguinhos project is an urban farm in a favela in Rio de Janeiro [Ian Cheibub/Al Jazeera]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Drone-Ian-Cheibub-Horta-2.jpg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)