The Brazilian Ministry of Health announced yesterday Friday that in the previous 24 hours another 874 deaths of patients were recorded due to the Covid-19 and 43.718 confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The coronavirus pandemic in the giant Latin American country of 212 million people stands at 130.396 dead, while the total number of infections now reaches 4.282.164 million, according to ministry data.
Brazil remains the number one country in Latin America - the region with the most infections worldwide - in both confirmed cases and deaths.
In a sunshine of optimism, the incidence of new cases in Peru, Colombia and Mexico has fallen slightly in recent weeks.
In particular, after more than five months of lockdown, the total cases of coronavirus in Colombia exceeded 700.000 yesterday, with the deaths of people infected with the disease reaching 23.000.
The Andean country records 702.088 confirmed cases of the virus, according to the Ministry of Health, and 22.518 recorded deaths.
Colombia began imposing its own pandemic measures in March to contain the pandemic. Today, it is going through a much more relaxed "selective" quarantine phase and is planning the resumption of international flights.
The Bogota Intensive Care Unit operates at almost 62% capacity, according to local health authorities. The capital hosts 1/3 of the country's infections.
Mexico's coronavirus death toll rose to more than 70.000 yesterday after the country's health ministry reported more than 500 deaths in the past 24 hours, a sad milestone for a country among those hardest hit by the pandemic the world.
Worse still, data on exceeding expected mortality from mid-March to early August indicate that the total number of deaths associated with Covid-19, beyond the official record, is probably tens of thousands higher.
Health officials late yesterday announced 534 new deaths in 24 hours because of it Covid-19, increasing this to 70.183. During the same period, 5.935 cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection were also recorded, bringing the total to 658.299.
The spread of the virus has devastated an already weakened economy, which is expected to shrink by up to 13% this year, in the deepest recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
According to official figures, Mexico has the fourth highest number of deaths in the world, and the 13th highest per capita, according to Johns Hopkins University.
However, earlier this month, the health ministry said it had recorded more than 120.000 "additional" deaths between mid-March and August 1st. The calculation compares mortality rates this year with the four-year average from 2015 to 2018.
Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ-Reuters-Sputnik-AFP