BRASILIA — Coronavirus cases in Latin America and the Caribbean surged on Sunday, briefly overtaking the total in North America thanks to Brazil’s numbers alone, an Agence France-Presse tally showed.
As the worldwide case count passed 16 million, Latin America and the Caribbean recorded the highest number of infections, taking its total caseload to more than 4.34 million, according to an AFP tally at 2100 Greenwich Mean Time, based on official sources.
It was the first time the total number of COVID-19 infections in the region had surpassed that of North America, where the United States remains the hardest-hit country in terms of both caseload and death toll.
But North America soon moved ahead again, as the United States recorded 55,187 new cases in 24 hours, a tracker by Johns Hopkins University showed at 8:30 p.m. (0030 GMT today).
That brought the total number of infections in the U.S. alone to almost 4.23 million. Combined with Canada’s total of 115,787 cases, North America now has more than 4.34 million infections.
The United States also added 518 deaths on Sunday, bringing its death toll to 146,909.
In Latin America, Brazil is the worst-hit country with almost 2.42 million cases and 87,004 deaths as of Sunday.
There have also been increases in infections in Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Argentina, all of which are trying to resume economic activities.
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