Brazil hit the tragic milestone of half a million COVID deaths on Saturday when it added 2,495 fatalities to its count.

The country has the second highest pandemic death toll in the world, second only to the United States, with its 600,000 deaths — though the US population is also 55% larger.

But unlike the United States, whose death and infection numbers have plunged after a major vaccination campaign, Brazilians are now going through their second highest level of daily cases and deaths — only the peak in March and April was higher. In most states, case numbers are remaining stable or increasing.

The infection rate has been accelerating since early May after governors and mayors relaxed social distancing measures, a move that experts now blame for the current spike.

It’s the highly transmissible coronavirus variants, which are more likely to infect or re-infect people, that are making the pandemic so difficult to control.

A study by the government’s Butantan Institute found that, in Sao Paulo state, the gamma variant (or P.1, originally found in Manaus) made up the vast majority of infections, as of May 29. The alpha variant from the UK and the beta variant from South Africa each represented less than 5% of cases.