The Americas will bear the brunt of an estimated 305 million job losses that the coronavirus pandemic will cause worldwide between April and June, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Wednesday.
The health system in Peru is on the brink of collapse, with public hospitals facing drastic equipment shortages amid a rising number of coronavirus cases. A University of Washington study has projected that Covid-19 deaths in Peru will reach nearly 20,000 by August, indicating that demand is likely to outstrip the supply of beds in intensive care units.
LATAM Airlines Group, the continent's largest carrier, filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection, Chapter 11, on Tuesday, becoming the world's largest carrier so far to seek an emergency reorganization due to the coronavirus pandemic. The filing includes Latam Peru, Chile, Ecuador, and Colombia, but leaves out Latam Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.
Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest coastal city has been ravaged by coronavirus with bodies buried in mass graves or kept in newly-filled shipping containers to help relatives identify their loved ones among the decomposing corpses.
International health authorities expressed concern on Tuesday over signs the spread of the new coronavirus is still accelerating in Brazil, Peru, and Chile. The Pan American Health Organization, which serves as the regional office for the World Health Organization, has been monitoring the pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Mexico's auto industry reopening picked up the pace on Tuesday, with Fiat, Chrysler, and BMW AG joining peers in gradually dusting off operations even as the wait for approvals slowed the return of Ford Motor Co and other companies.
Demonstrators defied coronavirus restrictions to march in cities across Ecuador on Monday in protest against President Lenin Moreno's drastic economic measures to tackle the crisis.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Sunday that the novel coronavirus could cost as many as a million jobs in the country as many industries considered not essential remain shut.
South America has become “a new epicenter” of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, following a surge in the number of Covid-19 infections.
Peru on Friday extended its state of emergency and a nationwide lockdown to fight the coronavirus pandemic until the end of June, marking one of the longest periods of mandatory isolation in the world.