'South America new epicentre of COVID-19 pandemic, Brazil most affected': WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that South America has become an “epicentre” of the COVID-19 pandemic as Brazil surpassed Russia's coronavirus infection and became second-most affected country in the world. While the global infections have surpassed 5.2 million, there have been significant spikes in the COVID-19 cases in Central as well as South America. 

According to the international news agency, WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan said that in a sense, South America has become a new epicentre for the disease.

Since the first case of COVID-19 surfaced in China later last year, according to Johns Hopkins University the infection has killed 337,572 people globally out of which at least 95,921 are only in the United States. Meanwhile, as of May 23, the US has over 1.6 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. 

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Brazil's death toll surpasses 21,000

This week, as more and more countries claim to have contained the unprecedented outbreak of deadly coronavirus, Brazil became the latest flashpoint and has now recorded 21,048 deaths along with 330,890 confirmed cases of COVID-19. 

According to Johns Hopkins University, the Latin America giant is now the second-most affected countries of the COVID-19 pandemic just behind the US after surpassing infections in Russia.

According to reports, most infections in Brazil are concentrated in Sao Paulo. However, the highest rate of infection remains in the state of Amazonas where Mike Ryan revealed that 490 people in every 100,000 were COVID-19 positive. He even noted that the situation is alarming in most of the countries in the region but Brazil remains “most affected”.

Unlike other coronavirus hotspots like Europe and the United States, where most severely affected people were the elderly, Brazil has recorded most COVID-19 cases of individuals among the younger generation. These people are reportedly those who have continued to work since the struggles of acute poverty overpowered the fear of disease. 

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(With agency inputs; Image Source: AP)