A 16-month-old tot has died with COVID-19 while waiting for an intensive care bed in Brasilia, where there is over 95 percent occupancy due to the omicron variant hitting the Brazilian capital in recent weeks.

The toddler, name not disclosed, was admitted to a public hospital on Monday, 31st January, with a positive diagnosis of the coronavirus, and the youngster’s family was waiting for the tot to be transferred to an intensive care unit, according to the Ministry of Health in the Brazilian capital Brasilia.

However, the child’s lung condition worsened and the tot suffered a “cardiorespiratory arrest”, the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

In the capital, ICUs have faced occupancy levels of between 95 and 100 percent in the last two weeks due to the omicron variant, which has been spreading quickly through the country since the start of January, according to the news site 20 Minutos.

Despite the start of the vaccine rollout programme over a year ago, the authorities said that around 90 percent of patients hospitalised with COVID-19 have not been jabbed or have not finished the complete schedule.

On Tuesday, Brazil registered 929 deaths and 193,465 new infections due to the advancement of the omicron variant, which brought the total number of COVID-related deaths to 628,067 and the total number of cases to 25.62 million since the start of the pandemic in February 2020.