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Brazil now world's virus hot spot

Bloomberg

Brazil is now the world's fastest-growing coronavirus hot spot, accounting for 13 per cent of all new cases globally in the past week.

Just days after it overtook Italy and Spain in total number of cases, the Latin American nation is poised to claim the No. 3 spot from the UK and is quickly catching up to Russia, which trails only the US, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

For health professionals and long-time Brazil watchers, the brushfire spread of the deadly respiratory illness is aggravating in its predictability. The country's public health system, an emerging market with 210 million people, was already underfunded and under strain well before the pandemic raced around the globe.

But a quickly deteriorating political crisis and infighting among federal and state officials, as well as in President Jair Bolsonaro's own Cabinet, leave the nation without a comprehensive strategy to slow the spread. Social distancing measures vary from state to state - even city to city - as local leaders take charge of implementing their own quarantines and lockdowns.

On Friday, Health Minister Nelson Teich quit after less than a month on the job, just as Brazil had a record 17,126 new cases, according to the tally from Bloomberg and Johns Hopkins University. More than 16,000 people have died so far.

"Three health ministers in less than a month; fewer than 3500 tests per million people; no clear federal guidance on how to deal with the pandemic; and varied, uncoordinated containment policies," Alejo Czerwonko, an emerging markets strategist for UBS Financial Services, wrote in a note to clients. "It's no surprise that Brazil" is a new epicentre, he added.