Coronavirus: ‘Little flu’ cases in Latin America pass 21,000

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro — who has railed against social-distancing — is now at the centre of a row over spreading misinformation.

A cemetery in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Wednesday

More than 21,000 cases of COVID-19 were registered in Latin America and the Caribbean by Thursday — double the figure from five days ago.

As the threat of the pandemic grew across the region, a Guatemalan migrant died and more than 20 were wounded in a riot over coronavirus fears at a holding facility for Central American migrants in Mexico.

A protest by mostly Honduran migrants at the facility in southeastern Tabasco state turned violent late on Tuesday after those inside set bedding ablaze amid fears over the spread of the virus. Authorities had registered 580 deaths and 21,295 cases across the region by Thursday, according to a tally kept by Agence France-Presse.

Brazil recorded Latin America’s first infection on February 26. With a population of 210 million, the South American giant is now the most affected country, with 6931 cases including 244 deaths.

President Jair Bolsonaro — who has repeatedly railed against social-distancing measures he says are needlessly hurting the economy — found himself at the centre of a row over spreading misinformation. Mr Bolsonaro posed a video online of a market supposedly hit by shortages caused by the pandemic. But he was forced to remove it hours later after journalists found the same market well stocked.

Mr Bolsonaro has compared the coronavirus to a “little flu”, and condemned the reaction to it as “hysteria”, statements which have left him increasingly isolated, in Brazil and beyond.

Another leader criticised for taking the pandemic lightly, President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, replaced his Health Minister. Nicaragua’s government has yet to enforce preventive measures common in other countries, including closing borders or prohibiting crowds.

It has reported five infections, with one death. The minister, Carolina Davila, will remain as an adviser to the presidency.

More than 300 Bolivians and dozens of Peruvians were stranded at a makeshift camp at Huara in Chile on Thursday, after their countries’ borders were shut due to the coronavirus.

Chile’s Interior Minister Gonzalo Blumel said “all countries have to face this from a humanitarian perspective, especially with regard to the return of people who are in a position to return”.

AFP