Brazil tops 100,000 virus deaths, Trump extends US economic aid

Brazil became the second country to pass the grim milestone of 100,000 coronavirus deaths Saturday as US President Donald Trump signed executive actions extending economic help in the world’s worst-hit nation.

The US leader’s orders followed failure by his Republican party and opposition Democrats to agree on a new stimulus package despite the country’s double digit unemployment, business downturn and stubbornly high coronavirus infection rates.

Meanwhile just a day after Latin America and the Caribbean became the hardest-hit region in the global pandemic, Brazil reported a total of 100,477 fatalities, joining the United States as the only two countries to surpass the six-digit death mark.

Tolls continue to rise across the world, with global fatalities having now soared past 722,000. More than 162,000 of those were in the United States, which was on the verge of recording 5 million cases.

India has more than two million infections — its caseload having doubled in three weeks — and has recorded 42,518 deaths.

And more than 10,000 people have died from coronavirus in South Africa, the health ministry said Saturday, as football resumed following a 145-day coronavirus-induced shutdown. (AFP)

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