Latin America and Caribbean top 2 million COVID-19 cases

Montevideo, Uruguay | June 21, 2020, Sunday @ 10:00 in World » GENERAL | By: AFP | Views: 1692

Health workers carry out an epidemiological sweep, visiting house by house in different neighborhoods of the city of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, on June 20, 2020, in order to detect cases of COVID-19 and be able to treat them in their homes to avoid the collapse of the health system. (Enrique CANEDO / AFP)

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(AFP) - Latin America and the Caribbean on Saturday surpassed two million coronavirus cases, with Brazil home to more than half of the infections, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

The virus is accelerating its spread in the region, an outbreak hotspot with 2,007,621 confirmed cases.

Brazil, Latin America's largest country, trails only the United States in infections and deaths. It has recorded 1,067,579 confirmed cases and 49,976 deaths from COVID-19.

Mexico is the second hardest-hit country in the region, with than 170,000 cases and 20,349 deaths.

Mexico City had been scheduled to reopen markets, restaurants and other businesses on Monday, but authorities pushed the schedule back by a week, with the virus continuing to spread.

Chile nearly doubled its reported coronavirus death toll Saturday to 7,144 under a new tallying method that includes probable fatalities from COVID-19.

The toll increased by 3,069, Rafael Araos of the health ministry said as he explained the new government counting methodology.

And Peru has topped 250,000 cases of coronavirus, with 7,861 deaths. The country registered 201 deaths in the last 24 hours, the second-highest daily toll since the health emergency was declared in March.

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