(CNN) — According to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the number of cases of covid-19 in Latin America exceeded the figure of 2 million infections this week.
Covid-19 cases in Latin America tripled from almost 690,000 on May 23 to more than 2 million on Thursday, said PAHO Director Dr. Carissa Etienne.
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This week, Brazil exceeded one million cases of covid-19, joining U.S As the only other country in the world with a 7-digit case number, PAHO said. Mexico rose to the fourth country with the highest number of cases on the continent. This Thursday, Colombia reported a new record number of deaths daily by covid-19.
There is now widespread transmission in most of Central America, while the Caribbean has hot spots on the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, as well as in northern South America, according to Etienne.
The 10 countries with the highest number of covid-19 infections and deaths in Latin America are:
Brazil: 1,228,114 cases, 54,971 deaths
Peru: 268,602 cases, 8,761 deaths
Chile: 259,064 cases, 4,903 deaths.
Mexico: 202,951 cases, 25,060 deaths
Colombia: 80,599 cases, 2,654 deaths
Ecuador: 53,156 cases, 4,343 deaths
Argentina: 52,457 cases, 1,150 deaths
Dominican Republic: 29,141 cases, 698 deaths (last updated June 24)
Panama: 29,037 cases, 564 deaths
Bolivia: 28,503 cases, 913 deaths
Those figures are updated at 6:00 am Miami this Friday.
Nearly 400,000 people will die of covid-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean in October, according to a new study published Thursday by the Institute for Health Assessment and Metrics in University of Washington projects.
