Infections rise sharply in Latin America as global number of cases passes 5 million

THE number of people infected with coronavirus around the world has passed the grim landmark of five million, with most new cases emerging in America, Russia, Brazil and India.

The World Health Organisation said yesterday that a daily record of 106,000 new cases were reported in the previous 24 hours – two thirds coming from just those four countries.

The figure is the highest in a single day since the outbreak started in Wuhan, China, in December.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general, said: “We still have a long way to go in this pandemic. We are concerned about rising cases in low and middle-income countries.”

The pandemic has officially claimed more than 330,000 lives – with more than half recorded in Europe – although the true number is higher, as many countries do not include deaths outside hospitals and there is still limited testing in the community. There is particular concern about Latin America, which has in the past week overtaken the US and Europe to report more new daily cases, accounting for around a third of the 91,000 reported. Europe and the US each accounted for just over 20 per cent.

The shift to Latin America, India and Russia represents a new phase in the spread that initially peaked in China in

February before outbreaks in the West.

A large number of new cases are from Brazil, which recently overtook Germany, France and the UK to claim the third-largest outbreak, behind the US and Russia.

Cases in Brazil, where President Jair Bolsonaro once described Covid-19 as

“a little flu”, are rising at a pace second only to the US, with the country’s health officials reporting 1,179 deaths in a single day.

But the situation is also worsening in Peru, now the second Latin American country after Brazil to hit 100,000 coronavirus cases.

The number of deaths in Peru has passed 3,000, with only Brazil and Mexico suffering more.

Cases and deaths in Peru have trebled since April 30, despite Peru’s nineweek lockdown. Doctors say the health system is on the brink of collapse, with drastic equipment shortages in public hospitals.

Miguel Armas, a nurse at the Hipólito Unanue hospital in the capital, Lima, told the AFP news agency: “It’s like a horror film. Inside it’s like a cemetery, given all the bodies. Patients are dying in their chairs.”

Mexico is also struggling. The country’s death toll hit a record 424 for a single day on Wednesday. In total Mexico has recorded 56,594 cases and 6,090 deaths, though there are fears more cases may not have been reported.