BRASILIA, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Confidence in Brazil’s services sector fell this month to its lowest since July last year, a survey showed on Friday, as households hunkered down in the face of a surging second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Services account for around 70% of all economic activity in Brazil, and they have lagged other areas such as manufacturing in recovering from the pandemic-fueled slump. A recovery in the sector will be crucial to sustaining wider economic growth. The Getulio Vargas Foundation’s (FGV) services sector confidence index fell 2.3 points to 83.2 points in February, the second consecutive decline and the lowest since July’s 79.0. The index remains well above last April’s record low 51.5, but on the other hand it is far below the pre-pandemic level of 94.4 in February last year. “Although vaccines have started, the increase in the number of cases and pace of immunization will determine the pace of recovery, which is what directly influences consumers’ caution,” FGV economist Rodolpho Tobler said. He said the fall in confidence in February was seen as much in current conditions as expectations for the coming months, indicating a challenging path ahead. Figures on Thursday showed that Brazil registered 1,541 COVID-19 related deaths in the last 24 hours, the second highest daily death toll since the pandemic hit the country a year ago and taking the total past the 250,000 mark.