Brazil likely to see a million cases by end of week

Brazil has set a new record of daily cases – 34,918 patients were registered as having Coronavirus in the past 24 hours. There are now more than 920,000 cases in the country, second only to the US. And nearly 1,300 deaths were registered, taking the death toll to 45,241.

The infection rate is showing no signs of slowing – at this rate, Brazil is likely to register a million cases by the end of the week. The country is the new epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic – a crisis that is worsening by the day.

With so little testing in Brazil, it’s thought that the true number of infections is far higher than official figures suggest.

But under pressure from the country’s President, Jair Bolsonaro, who has criticised quarantine measures as economically damaging, major cities are starting to re-open – all before the country is believed to have even reached the peak.