Latin America named virus epicentre

Surges in infections drive global case count to nearly 5.2 million

The World Health Organisation declared Latin America “a new epicentre” of the pandemic.

As surges in infections across much of Central and South America have driven the global case count to nearly 5.2 million, with more than 337,000 deaths, even as hard-hit Europe and the United States cautiously move into a recovery phase.

The death toll in Brazil has soared past 20,000, and with 310,000 reported cases, it has the thirdbiggest caseload in the world behind the United States and Russia.

“In a sense, South America has become a new epicentre for the disease,” WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan said on Friday.

“We’ve seen many South American

countries with increasing numbers of cases ... but certainly the most affected is Brazil at this point.”

Unlike in Europe and the United States, where the elderly were hardest-hit, a significant number of deaths in Brazil have been younger people, who are often driven by poverty to work despite the threat of infection.

“Since Brazil has a younger population, it’s normal for the number of cases to be higher among under60s,” said Mauro Sanchez, an epidemiologist at the University of Brasilia.

“What’s perverse is that a lot of the people who are exposing themselves to the virus are doing it because they don’t have a choice.”

As the toll mounted, gravediggers at a cemetery outside Sao Paulo scrambled to keep up.

“We’ve been working 12-hour days, burying them one after the other,” said one worker at Vila Formosa, wearing a white protective suit, mask and face shield.

Meanwhile, experts have warned that until a vaccine or treatment is developed for the virus, lockdown measures will persist in some form to prevent new waves of infections, a factor that has put immense pressure on economies.

The airline, travel and hospitality sectors have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, and car rental giant Hertz became the latest high-profile victim, announcing Friday that it was filing for bankruptcy in the United States and Canada.

It added that the bankruptcy filing excludes its main international operations, including Europe, where many nations are opening up their economies cautiously after slowing the spread of the virus.

France decided that it was safe to hold a delayed second round of municipal elections on June 28, and the Czech Republic said the pandemic remains contained there, two weeks after shopping malls, cinemas and restaurant terraces reopened.

Serbia said, meanwhile, that the Exit Festival in Novi Sad – one of Europe’s biggest music events – could go ahead in August as planned, and in Italy Florence’s famous Duomo cathedral reopened to the public.

But authorities are still keen to avoid opening up too fast, with a surge in Russia illustrating how quickly the deadly disease can spread. — AFP