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Latin America and the Caribbean is currently the area of the world most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, both in number of cases and deaths, at least according to official figures.
More than half of the infections are in Brazil, which already registers 5,055,888 infections and 149,639 deaths. Colombia follows (894,300 cases and 27,495 deaths), Argentina (871,455 cases, 23,225 deaths) and Peru (843,355 cases, 33,158 deaths).
Proportionally to its population, Peru registers the highest mortality rate, with 100 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Belgium (87), Bolivia (70), Brazil (70) and Spain (70).
In total, the new coronavirus pandemic has caused at least one million deaths and more than 36.5 million infections, since December around the world, according to AFP figures.
Latin America will also be the region most economically hit by the pandemic
On Friday, the World Bank (WB) warned that Latin America and the Caribbean will suffer “the worst economic and health impact” in the world by COVID-19 and predicted a 7.9% decline in GDP in 2020.
According to a report by the entity, “the number of deaths per million people (in Latin America) is as high as in advanced economies, if not more, but the resources available to deal with the blow are much more restricted“.
“Our region bears the worst economic and health impact due to covid-19 in the world,” said the vice president of the World Bank for Latin America and the Caribbean, Colombian Carlos Felipe Jaramillo.
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