MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The number of people who have died from coronavirus in Latin America surpassed 100,000 on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally of registered deaths, while Mexico announced a record one-day total for new infections.
In recent weeks Latin America has emerged as the epicenter of the pandemic, with a spike in cases and deaths even as the tide of infection recedes elsewhere on the planet.
Mexico on Tuesday registered 6,288 new infections and 793 additional deaths from the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the health ministry said, bringing the totals for the country to 191,410 cases and 23,377 deaths.
Mexico has been the worst hit-nation in the region after with Brazil, where a judge on Tuesday ordered President Jair Bolsonaro to wear a mask in public after the right-wing populist attended political rallies without one in the middle of the world’s second-worst coronavirus outbreak.
Brazil on Tuesday registered an additional 1,374 deaths from the virus and 39,436 new cases, pushing the death toll from the novel coronavirus to 52,000 people in in Latin America’s biggest economy. More than 1.1 million have been infected.
The virus also appears to be on the rise in Central America, where Guatemala on Tuesday recorded more than 700 new infections for the first time. Additional 35 deaths were registered in Guatemala, taking it deaths total to 582.
(Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)
