COVID-19 soars in major countries

Coronavirus cases are soaring in several major countries at the same time, with “worrying increases” in Latin America, especially Brazil, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

The world recorded more than 183,000 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, the most in a single day since the outbreak started in December, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

“Certainly the numbers are increasing because the epidemic is developing in a number of populous countries at the same time and across the whole world,” the WHO’s top emergencies expert, Mike Ryan, told an online briefing.

“Some of that increase may be attributed to increased testing ... And certainly countries like India are testing more. But we do not believe that this is a testing phenomenon.”

Ryan said there had been a jump in cases in Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Panama, Bolivia and Guatemala, as well as Brazil, which had passed the 1 million mark – second only to the US.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been widely criticized for his handling of the crisis. The country still has no permanent health minister after losing two since April, following clashes with the president.

Bolsonaro has shunned social distancing, calling it a job-killing measure more dangerous than the virus itself. He has also promoted two anti-malarial drugs – chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine – as remedies, despite a lack of evidence.

Tedros said a lack of global leadership and unity in fighting the virus was a bigger threat than the outbreak itself, and that politicization had made the pandemic worse.