Thousands of fresh graves are being dug in Santiago's main cemetery amid a spike in Chile's COVID-19 cases, authorities said on Thursday. Chile's infection rate soared this week, prompting the government to declare a mandatory lockdown of Santiago's seven million people from Friday.
As the planet battles the seemingly inexorable spread of the coronavirus, Antarctica remains the only Covid-19-free continent - thanks in the main to strict security and not a little luck. The natural isolation of the frozen and desolate expanse has been taken to new extremes since the WHO declared a pandemic on March 11.
Brazil and Mexico on Thursday reported a record one-day rise in new coronavirus cases, just as leaders of both countries intensified attempts to reopen their economies even as the spread of the virus in Latin America is seemingly gathering pace.
Brazil’s government lowered its 2020 economic outlook, forecasting a gross domestic product contraction of 4.7%, which would signal the country’s biggest economic crash in more than a century.
President Donald Trump signaled a further deterioration of his relationship with China over the novel coronavirus, saying he has no interest in speaking to President Xi Jinping right now and going so far as to suggest he could even cut ties with the world’s second-largest economy.
OPEC again slashed its forecast for global oil demand this year as the coronavirus outbreak causes a global recession, although it said record supply cuts by the group and other producers were already helping rebalance the market.
Brazil registered a record number of new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday surpassing France's tally to become the sixth-worst hit country, as the coronavirus sends the economy towards its worst year since at least 1900.
Remittances—the money that immigrants working abroad send home to families on a regular basis—have become a major source of funding for developing countries. In 2019, total global remittances exceeded US$550 billion, putting them on a par with levels achieved by foreign direct investment.
Given the successful compliance of self-isolation and social distancing and other measures implemented by the Falkland Islands Government, FIG, the civilian population of the Islands remains with no positive cases of coronavirus, according to the Monday situation report.
Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benítez has said the spread of coronavirus in Brazil threatens his country's success in containing the virus. Mr Benítez said more than half of Paraguay's 563 cases were people who had entered from neighbouring Brazil.