5 million COVID-19 cases in Latin America
Latin America broke through 5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday, according to sources, underscoring that the region is the area of the world hardest hit by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The coronavirus was initially slower to reach Latin America – home to about 640 million people – than much of the world. But health experts say it has been hard to control the virus due to the region’s poverty and densely packed cities.
The more than 10,000 new cases reported by Colombia’s health ministry on Monday pushed the region past the 5 million mark, a day after the Andean nation reported a record 11,470 cases.
Latin America has now topped 200,000 deaths. Brazil’s total approached 96,000 on Monday and Mexico surpassed 48,000. The two countries have the world’s second and third highest death tolls, after the United States.
North America is the region with the second highest number of cases, with 4.8 million infections, according to sources, followed by Europe and Asia, which have around 3 million infections each.
