Coronavirus record death tolls in Mexico, Brazil spike fears for Latin America

Concerns are growing over coronavirus in Latin America as death tolls reach record highs – while leaders begin to ease restrictions.

Concern has been raised over the spread of coronavirus in Latin America as Mexico and Brazil report record number this week. Picture: Rebecca Blackwell/AP

Brazil and Mexico have both recorded their single highest day of death tolls, raising global concern coronavirus is spreading at an alarming rate in Latin America.

But as hospitals in both countries are inundated with high numbers of patients, their leaders are working to reopen the economies and ease social distancing restrictions.

On Tuesday, Brazil confirmed 117,602 cases of coronavirus had been recorded, passing the number in Germany. The country reported 881 deaths from the virus the same day.

Those numbers have continued to climb. Currently the number of confirmed cases in Brazil sits at more than 180,000, with around 13,000 total deaths.

In Mexico, more than 40,000 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed, with more than 4200 deaths, although there have been suggestions the numbers in Mexio have been under-counted.

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Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday. Picture: Eraldo Peres/AP

In Brazil, far right President Jair Bolsonaro is fiercely opposed to lockdowns that inhibit business activity and has previously made comments dismissing the coronavirus as “a little flu”.

Mr Bolsonaro is currently in a battle with his states to reopen gyms, beauty parlours and other businesses. The move comes as the country has earned the frightening title of becoming the epicentre of coronavirus in Latin America.

Nurses demonstrated in Brazil on Tuesday. Picture: Eraldo Peres/AP

On Tuesday, which was International Nurses Day, nurses in the country demonstrated with placards of their co-workers who had died from COVID-19. Mr Bolsonaro didn’t comment on the new figures, but tweeted a congratulations to the nurses for “fighting on the frontline”.

Brazil is the worst hit country in Latin America and has the sixth highest number of coronavirus cases in the world. However despite the country’s escalating situation, widespread lockdowns have not been implemented and only the largest cities have had restrictions imposed.

Despite being the hardest hit by the virus, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo still don’t have mandatory stay-at-home-orders at the state or city level.

In hospitals across the country doctors are now being forced to choose between who lives and dies, according to Miguel Lago, the executive director of Brazil’s non-profit Institute for Health Policy Studies.

Mr Lago warned the ongoing situation could lead to widespread social unrest and “total disaster”. He said mandatory lockdowns would help, according to Fox News.

“It is late in terms of avoiding hospital collapse, but certainly it isn’t too late to avoid a bigger catastrophe,” he said.

In Mexico, multiple reports have suggested authorities are severely under-counting the number of people infected and deaths caused by coronavirus.

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A hearse arrives at the San Nicolas Tolentino Civil Pantheon in Mexico City on Tuesday. Picture: Alfredo Estrella/AFP

A New York Times analysis said “almost three times as many people have died from COVID-19 in Mexico City” as is being reported by officials and the government is working to cover up “hundreds, possibly thousands” of deaths.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador pledged on Wednesday to begin reopening Mexico’s economy next week – under pressure at home and from US officials. The promise comes even as the country saw its largest one-day jump in coronavirus cases, hospitals are reeling, and testing remains inadequate.

But the governor of a state that is home to major auto plants warned that lifting restrictions now could lead to the pandemic getting “out of control”.

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People sleep outside as they wait for relatives in the Mexico General Hospital in Mexico City. Picture: Rebecca Blackwell/AP

Mexico imposed a lockdown in March, which will remain in place, but work in industries like construction, mining, and car and truck manufacturing industries will be allowed to begin again on May 18, because Mexico’s top advisory body on the pandemic, the General Health Council, classified them as “essential activities on Tuesday.

Mexico has been under pressure from US officials to reopen auto assembly plants, in particular, because without them, integrated supply chains would make it hard for plants in the US and Canada to reopen. At home, the National Alliance of Small Business Owners has also complained about lockdown measures, often imposed, quasi-legally, at the local level.

On Wednesday, Mr Lopez Obrador announced the country had succeeded in controlling the virus.

“The safe-distancing campaign has brought us control – a flattening of the curve,” he said.

– with AP