Latin America still faces rising daily infection rates

By Laura Gamba

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - Many nations in Europe have seen a spike in daily confirmed coronavirus cases in the past week, while the number of new infections in the US remains high and many parts of Latin America are still facing rising daily infection rates.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that although all countries have been affected by this virus, “we must remember that this is an uneven pandemic. Ten countries account for 70% of all reported cases and deaths, and just three countries account for half," he added. Those three countries are the US, India and Brazil.

Brazil

Brazil registered 11,946 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus Monday, bringing its total to 4,927,235, and 146,675 deaths, according to health authorities.

With a high daily average of deaths and infections in the last two weeks, the country could reach the 150,000 mark for deaths and 5 million cases this week.

The South American nation is third behind the United States and India in the number of cases and second after the US in the number of deaths due to the coronavirus.

Venezuela

After Venezuela received a shipment of the Russian-made Sputnik-V vaccine against the coronavirus, President Nicolas Maduro said his son will join the trials.

An initial batch of the vaccine arrived in Venezuela on Friday, the government announced, and 2,000 residents will participate in the trials.

"In this clinical trial phase, my son, Nicolas Ernesto Maduro Guerra, told me of his decision to be vaccinated with the Russian vaccine, to join the trial. I think it is very good," said Maduro in a televised statement.

Russia became the first country in the world to approve a vaccine against the coronavirus, although it had not started phase 3 trials or had any results on the earlier stage trials been published.

There are 79,117 confirmed coronavirus cases and 658 deaths in Venezuela so far, according to government figures.