The global death toll from the coronavirus neared 400,000 on Sunday with fatalities accelerating in Latin America.
Brazil has the world’s third-highest death toll but President Jair Bolsonaro has threatened to pull out of the World Health Organisation (WHO) over “ideological bias”, following the example of the United States.
Brazil’s death toll passed 35,000 as Bolsonaro echoed criticism of the WHO by Trump.
Tolls are also rising sharply in Mexico, Peru and Ecuador, while in Chile, deaths have risen by more than 50 percent in the past week.
Governments are also increasingly focused on repairing the economic damage, and even hard-hit European countries are now opening their borders and allowing people to return to work.
US ‘largely through’ –
The worst health crisis in more than a century has infected nearly 6.9 million globally and forced tens of millions out of work just in the United States, the world’s hardest-hit nation.
But President Donald Trump said his country was bouncing back.
“We had the greatest economy in the history of the world. And that strength let us get through this horrible pandemic, largely through, I think we’re doing really well,” he told reporters.
As the country reels from a second weekend of massive protests against racism and police brutality, Trump — facing re-election in November — reiterated his calls to further ease stay-at-home measures.
EU to reopen borders –
In Europe, badly-hit countries slowly continued on a path toward a post-pandemic normal, also seeking to revive key tourist sectors in time for the summer.
The European Union said it could re-open borders to travellers from outside the region in early July, after some countries within the bloc re-opened to European visitors.
In France, the Palace of Versailles re-opened without the US and Chinese tourists that usually make up a third of its visitors.
