Latin America, Caribbean briefly overtakes N. America in virus cases

A patient infected with COVID-19 is helped by a nurse, outside the regional Honorio Delgado Hospital, in the Andean city of Arequipa, south of Peru on July 23, 2020. – The government issued an emergency decree allowing the Ministry of Health to intervene to mitigate the crisis situation caused by the increase in COVID-19 infections and victims. Peru exceeded 17,000 deaths from the coronavirus on Wednesday, adding 188 new cases and adding 3,688 deaths between March and June that had not been officially counted by health authorities, the government reported. (Photo by Diego RAMOS / AFP)

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Coronavirus cases in Latin America and the Caribbean surged on Sunday, briefly overtaking the total in North America, an AFP tally showed.

As the worldwide case count passed 16 million, Latin America and the Caribbean recorded the highest number of infections, taking its total caseload to more than 4.34 million, according to an AFP tally at 2100 GMT, based on official sources.

It was the first time the total number of infections in the region had surpassed that of North America, where the United States remains the hardest-hit country in terms of both caseload and death toll.

But North America soon moved ahead again, as the US recorded 55,187 new cases in 24 hours, a tracker by Johns Hopkins University showed at 8:30 pm (0030 GMT Monday).

That brought the total number of infections in the US alone to almost 4.23 million. Combined with Canada’s total of 115,787 cases, North America now has more than 4.34 million infections.

The US also added 518 deaths on Sunday, bringing its death toll to 146,909.

In Latin America, Brazil is the worst-hit country with almost 2.42 million cases and 87,004 deaths as of Sunday.

There have also been increases in infections in Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Argentina, all of which are trying to resume economic activities.

© Agence France-Presse