CORONAVIRUS DRAMATIC SITUATION

IN LATIN AMERICA

In Asia, as in Europe, the Covid-19 epidemic appears to be gradually disappearing as the summer season approaches. On the other side of the Atlantic, and more particularly in South America, the health situation went from worrying to dramatic in a few weeks.

The new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, Brazil recorded 1,349 deaths from the new coronavirus in 24 hours on Wednesday, a new record for this country, the most affected in Latin America. If a curfew has been imposed in twenty locations in the state of Bahia (Northeast), the containment measures, strongly criticized by Bolsonaro himself, still apply "à la carte", according to the regions. The President regularly calls for the lifting of restrictions to preserve the economy and jobs.

"If we do not act, we risk seeing an explosion in demand for intensive care beds and we will not be able to meet them," warned Bahia state governor Rui Costa.

"It is not a crisis, it is a war," he said in a tweet, calling on politicians to forget "the differences between the parties" and to "work for the country and save lives".

“Let's listen to science!” Also wrote Governor Costa, skillfully and indirectly addressing President Bolsonaro. Brazil has already officially registered 32,548 deaths, which places the Latin American giant in fourth place in the world for the dead, behind the United States - which remains by far the hardest hit country with 107,000 dead - the United Kingdom (39,728) and Italy (33,530).

In Mexico.

The number of deaths attributed to the new coronavirus has doubled in 24 hours, going from 470 Tuesday to 1,092 Wednesday, according to the official government balance sheet. An alarming figure that does not exceed that of Brazil, the new epicenter of the epidemic, where 1349 deaths were recorded Wednesday, a record.

In total, the Covid-19 killed 11,729 people in Mexico, the second heavy toll in Latin America behind Brazil. A total of 101,238 confirmed cases of contamination have been reported there since the start of the pandemic. The head of the Covid-19 strategy in Mexico, Hugo Lopez-Gatell, undersecretary for health, said on Friday that he believed the country was likely to reach the toll of 30,000 dead.

Although the latter warned of the danger for Mexicans to return to the public space given the current health situation, Mexico, a country of 120 million inhabitants, began Tuesday to restart its economy, the president Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador calling for the establishment of "a new normal in the country".

In Chil.

Another South American country hit hard by the epidemic, the authorities decided to extend the confinement in Santiago for a fourth week. Since the appearance of the first case declared on March 3, the South American country of 18 million inhabitants has registered 113,628 contaminations, including 1,275 fatal. In the past 24 hours, a record 87 people have died and 4,942 have been infected. Peru experiences record number of cases

With more than 183,198 cases, including 5,301 deaths, according to the latest official figures for Thursday evening, Peru is the second country in Latin America in number of infected, after Brazil. More than 9,000 patients with the new coronavirus are currently hospitalized, putting the healthcare system on the brink of breakdown. Peru is facing a shortage of oxygen due to the pandemic.

The government says it will import it and has declared that it is now considered a "strategic health resource whose medical use has priority over industrial use". According to Social Security (Essalud), which manages 400 hospitals and practices, demand has increased fivefold since the start of the health crisis. "The lack of oxygen is a latent risk in several regions", not only in Lima, explains the head of the college of doctors in the Chiclayo region (north), Manuel Soria.

“We need oxygen because we need to get it to the peripheral areas, where there is a big need. We need to set up factories to supply the population, but the size of the region makes transportation difficult, ”explains regional health manager Carlos Calampa.

The other large countries, including Argentina, hitherto relatively preserved, are also beginning to see cases multiply. Latin America, the new epicenter of Covid-19, therefore linked death records. Social tensions were also mounting due to the economic slowdown.