Home ›› 23 May 2020 ›› World Biz
Brazil became the world No-2 hotspot for coronavirus cases on Friday (May 22) behind the United States, as the Americas emerged as a new epicentre of the pandemic.
The South American country has now registered 330,890 infections and 21,048 deaths from the new coronavirus, though experts say under-testing means the real figures maybe 15 times higher or more.
The number of deaths in Brazil rose by 1,001 in 24 hours, the third time in four days it has come in over 1,000.
The surge came as the World Health Organization declared South America "a new epicentre" of the pandemic.
"Clearly there is a concern across many of those countries, but clearly the most affected is Brazil at this point," said WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan.
The United States has registered more than 1.6 million cases and nearly 96,000 deaths, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.
(Source: ndtv)
