Rio de Janeiro closed its famed beaches on Friday in a bid to contain a surge of COVID-19, a move criticized by anti-lockdown President Jair Bolsonaro, who said sun-deprived citizens risked a lack of vitamin D.
Germany's Volkswagen said on Friday that it will suspend production at its four plants in Brazil owing to a surge in coronavirus infections in the country. The Wolfsburg-based firm said it will stop factories from March 24 for a 12-day period to protect the health of its employees and their families.
Covid-19 has done little to alter the ranking of the world's happiest countries, with Finland at the top for a fourth year running, an annual UN-sponsored report said on Friday.
Argentina's Economy Minister Martin Guzmán traveled to New York on Wednesday night to meet investors before heading to Washington for talks with the International Monetary Fund, a government source said.
Health officials in Sao Paulo, have called on the new health minister to consider imposing a national lockdown as coronavirus deaths continue to rise. On Tuesday Brazil recorded 2,841 Covid-related deaths - its highest ever daily total.
Intensive care doctors in Germany warned on Monday that the country would need to make an immediate return to partial lockdown if it is to avoid stumbling into a dangerous third wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
Brazil has surpassed India to become the second worst-hit country from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic. With 11,483,370 cases and 278,327 deaths, Brazil is now one spot behind the United States, which is the worst-affected globally with more than 30 million cases and 546,605 deaths, according to figures by WorldMeters.
The Argentine government has extended until 31 December the current sanitary emergency first decreed on 12 March 2020, just days ahead of the social, preventive and mandatory distancing to contain the effects of the pandemic.
UK/European Union trade contracted in the first month of their new post-Brexit relationship, with record falls in British exports and imports of goods as COVID-19 restrictions continued on both sides.
China's economic output is forecast to account for more than 17% of the world's economy in the coronavirus-plagued 2020. As the sole economy recording positive GDP growth last year, China will ramp up efforts and strive to achieve higher quality, more efficient, sustainable and safer development in 2021, a senior government official revealed in Beijing.