Brasilia: Latin America and the Caribbean have surpassed the grim milestone of 2 million coronavirus cases on Sunday.
On Sunday, a total of 641 new coronavirus-related deaths were reported by Brazil’s health ministry, which has raised the country’s death toll to 50,617. With 17, 459 new cases being reported, the nationwide total has come to 1,085,038. Over the past seven days, Brazil saw 7,285 new deaths.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the virus’s global spread is accelerating after a daily high of 150,000 new cases were reported last week.
The virus is substantially increasing its spread in the region, with Mexico the second hardest-hit country in Latin America, followed by Peru and Chile.
Brazil is home to more than half of the infections. It is now the country with the second-highest number of cases worldwide, the only other country besides the United States to surpass a million confirmed cases.
The new coronavirus has infected nearly 8.8 million people and killed more than 464,000, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The true number is thought to be much higher because many cases go untested.