Global virus cases top 6mn as Brazil fatalities surge past that of France

BRASILIA: The number of coronavirus cases worldwide has topped six million as the disease spread rapidly across Latin America and political leaders feuded over how to deal with the pandemic.

Much of the world is moving at varying speeds to lift lockdowns that have wrecked economies and stripped millions of their jobs while Muslims in Jerusalem and other cities flocked to newly reopened mosques on Sunday.

But in Brazil -- the epicenter of

South America’s outbreak with nearly 500,000 confirmed cases, lagging only behind the US -- disagreement among its leaders over lockdown measures has hampered efforts to slow the outbreak.

President Jair Bolsonaro, who says the economic fallout from stay-at-home orders will be worse than the virus, has berated governors and mayors for imposing quarantines. Even as his country surpassed France to have the world’s fourth-highest toll with nearly 30,000 deaths, he called for Brazil football season to resume.