Latin America named new virus epicenter
Trump seeks US reopening
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared Latin America “a new epicenter” of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic as United States President Donald Trump ramped up pressure on state and local governments to speed up the reopening of the reeling American economy.
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 US 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 third biggest caseload in the world behind the United States and Russia.
“In a sense, South America has become a new epicenter 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,” Ryan added.
Unlike in Europe and the US, 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.
As the toll mounted, grave-diggers 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. “It doesn’t stop,” the worker added. In Washington, Trump, keen to find a way out of the crisis and facing an uphill re-election battle, ramped up pressure on state and local governments to ease lockdown measures.
The pandemic has hammered the American economy and led to calls for an end to virus restrictions, despite the COVID-19 numbers still rising in the US, the worst-hit country in the world with 1.6 million infections and 96,000 deaths.
In the latest step to restart the economy, the Trump administration on Friday said it would exempt from entry bans foreign professional athletes competing in the top leagues for several sports, including basketball, tennis and golf.