Brazil Becomes World’s Third Worst-Hit Country with COVID-19

By Staff, Agencies

Brazil has registered over 1,000 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said Tuesday, bringing the total number of fatalities in the country to 17,983.

Brazil has recorded a total of 271,885 COVID-19 cases, according to a Johns Hopkins University [JHU] tracker, the third-highest in the world after the United States and Russia.

Public health experts say the government figures may grossly understate the death and infection tolls because of Brazil’s low rate of COVID-19 testing.

The pandemic appears to be gaining pace rapidly in Brazil, and experts say the peak there is not expected until early June.

US President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he is considering a ban on Brazilians traveling to the US.

“Brazil is having some trouble, no question about it,” Trump said in response to a question by a reporter at a cabinet meeting, Bloomberg cited “I don’t want people coming in here and infecting our people.”

Meanwhile, the US has over 1.5 million cases of the virus with 91,921 total deaths, according to JHU.

Russia's number of infections is at 299,941, while the number of deaths stands at 2,837.