Covid-19: WHO calls South America 'a new epicenter' as Brazil's total surpass 330,000
Agencies. Updated: 5/23/2020 4:31:18 PM
World
Brasilia, May 23: The total number of Covid-19 cases in Brazil has climbed to 330,890, which means that the South American country has emerged as the country with the second-highest number of Corona virus infections in the world, only behind the United States.
Despite the high number of infections and as many as 21,048 deaths so far experts feel that there has been under-testing in the country and the real figures may be much higher.
Brazil registered 1,001 more deaths in the past 24 hours, marking the third time in four days when more than 1,000 people have perished in a single day.
World Health Organization(WHO) has already declared South America as "a new epicenter" of the pandemic.
WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan was quoted by Xinhua as saying "Clearly there is a concern across many of those countries, but clearly the most affected is Brazil at this point,".
Health experts expect the crisis to peak in Brazil not before June. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's response to the pandemic has been widely questioned, Bolsonaro once compared the virus to a "little flu," and has been dismissive of the stay-at-home measures imposed by state and local authorities, calling them needless and harmful to the economy.
As per figures released by the Johns Hopkins University, the United States has registered more than 1.6 million cases and nearly 96,000 deaths, while Russia has so far registered 326,488 cases and 3,200 deaths.