RIO DE JANEIRO, April 29 (AFP) - Brazil's death toll in the coronavirus pandemic surpassed 400,000 Thursday (Apr 29), as the country struggled to secure enough vaccines and the Senate investigated whether President Jair Bolsonaro's government has exacerbated the crisis.

The health ministry reported 3,001 COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing Brazil's overall toll to 401,186 - second only to the United States.

With 212 million people, the South American giant also has one of the highest mortality rates in the pandemic, at 189 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants - the worst in the Americas and one of the top 15 worldwide.

Brazil has been devastated by a surge in cases since the start of the year that pushed hospitals to the brink of collapse in many areas.

Although it appears to have passed the peak of the new wave, the number of daily deaths remains staggeringly high, at an average of 2,526 over the past week, behind only India.

Experts blame the latest surge partly on the "Brazil variant" of the virus, a mutation that emerged in or around the Amazon rainforest city of Manaus in December.

Known as P1, it can reinfect people who have had the original strain of the virus, and may be more contagious.

"P1 has had a very big impact. Nothing was done to contain the variant when there was a spike in January in Manaus. It was only a matter of time before it swept across Brazil," said epidemiologist Ethel Maciel of Espirito Santo Federal University.

P1 is now circulating in 54 countries, according to the World Health Organization, which labels it a "variant of concern," along with the so-called British and South African strains.