Ahead of an anticipated and dreaded peak of the national COVID-19 epidemic, Brazil has begun digging large-scale graveyards.

In Sao Paulo’s Vila Formosa cemetery, the largest in Latin America, with about 20 excavators digging against the clock.

In the space of a few days, the scene of workers digging painstakingly with shovels has changed to that of operators in masks and white overalls at the controls of heavy machinery.

The calm and silence of the Vila Formosa cemetery, where the remains of 1.5 million people are estimated to rest, is broken by the noise of the hydraulic excavators that on Friday started to dig around 1200 new graves.

For this they have released a new lot of land “as a precaution”, one of the gravediggers of the municipal funeral service told EFE.

The city of Sao Paulo, with some 12 million inhabitants, has been hardest hit in the country by the coronavirus crisis, with 643 deaths and almost 9000 cases since February 26 when the first was registered in the country.

The public health system is approaching its limit with several city hospitals close to having all their intensive care beds occupied.

The so-called curve has begun to accelerate in recent weeks, with the peak of the pandemic in the country expected in May or June, according to the Brazilian Ministry of Health.

Across the country, COVID-19 deaths are nearing 2500 and cases approaching 40,000.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has long been accused of downplaying the pandemic. He has referred to the virus as a "little flu" and "hysteria" and even visited a busy market outside the country's capital, Brasília, in a bid to get people back to work.