By , BRASILIA/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil registered a daily record 13,944 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Thursday, as President Jair Bolsonaro urged business leaders to push for lifting lockdown orders in financial center Sao Paulo to help the economy.Slideshow Brazil is the hardest hit country in Latin America with a tally of 202,918 confirmed cases of the virus and 13,933 deaths, since the outbreak began, according to health ministry data.Bolsonaro has railed against the economic damage caused by state and local government social distancing measures, taking his campaign to...…By , BRASILIA/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil registered a daily record 13,944 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Thursday, as President Jair Bolsonaro urged business leaders to push for lifting lockdown orders in financial center Sao Paulo to help the economy.Slideshow Brazil is the hardest hit country in Latin America with a tally of 202,918 confirmed cases of the virus and 13,933 deaths, since the outbreak began, according to health ministry data.Bolsonaro has railed against the economic damage caused by state and local government social distancing measures, taking his campaign to...WW…

By , BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil registered a record number of new cases of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, surpassing France’s tally to become the sixth-worst hit country, as the disease sends the economy toward its worst year since at least 1900.Slideshow The government confirmed 11,385 new cases in the last 24 hours, bringing its total count to 188,974 cases of the coronavirus since the outbreak began. Early on Wednesday, France revised its total number of confirmed and suspected cases down 0.3% to 177,700.The pandemic has battered Brazil’s economy as residents shelter at home and...…By , BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil registered a record number of new cases of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, surpassing France’s tally to become the sixth-worst hit country, as the disease sends the economy toward its worst year since at least 1900.Slideshow The government confirmed 11,385 new cases in the last 24 hours, bringing its total count to 188,974 cases of the coronavirus since the outbreak began. Early on Wednesday, France revised its total number of confirmed and suspected cases down 0.3% to 177,700.The pandemic has battered Brazil’s economy as residents shelter at home and...WW…

By , BRASILIA/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil likely has 12 times more cases of the new coronavirus than are being officially reported by the government, with too little testing and long waits to confirm the results, according to a study released on Monday.Researchers at a consortium of Brazilian universities and institutes examined the ratio of cases resulting in deaths through April 10 and compared it with data on the expected death rate from the World Health Organization.The much higher-than-expected death rate in Brazil indicates there are many more cases of the virus than are being...…By , BRASILIA/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil likely has 12 times more cases of the new coronavirus than are being officially reported by the government, with too little testing and long waits to confirm the results, according to a study released on Monday.Researchers at a consortium of Brazilian universities and institutes examined the ratio of cases resulting in deaths through April 10 and compared it with data on the expected death rate from the World Health Organization.The much higher-than-expected death rate in Brazil indicates there are many more cases of the virus than are being...WW…

By , RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who met with Donald Trump in the United States less than a week ago, will be retested for coronavirus following a negative test on Friday, Brazil’s Estado de S.Paulo newspaper reported.The test will be done early next week in order to rule out any chance the president has the virus, the newspaper said, without naming the source of the information. A representative for Bolsonaro’s press office declined to comment.Bolsonaro and a large Brazilian entourage, including cabinet ministers, met with Trump and other senior U.S....…By , RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who met with Donald Trump in the United States less than a week ago, will be retested for coronavirus following a negative test on Friday, Brazil’s Estado de S.Paulo newspaper reported.The test will be done early next week in order to rule out any chance the president has the virus, the newspaper said, without naming the source of the information. A representative for Bolsonaro’s press office declined to comment.Bolsonaro and a large Brazilian entourage, including cabinet ministers, met with Trump and other senior U.S....WW…

By RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil’s P1 coronavirus variant, behind a deadly COVID-19 surge in the Latin American country that has raised international alarm, is mutating in ways that could make it better able to evade antibodies, according to scientists studying the virus.Research conducted by the public health institute Fiocruz into the variants circulating in Brazil found mutations in the spike region of the virus that is used to enter and infect cells.Those changes, the scientists said, could make the virus more resistant to vaccines - which target the spike protein - with potentially...…By RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil’s P1 coronavirus variant, behind a deadly COVID-19 surge in the Latin American country that has raised international alarm, is mutating in ways that could make it better able to evade antibodies, according to scientists studying the virus.Research conducted by the public health institute Fiocruz into the variants circulating in Brazil found mutations in the spike region of the virus that is used to enter and infect cells.Those changes, the scientists said, could make the virus more resistant to vaccines - which target the spike protein - with potentially...WW…

By RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil’s P1 coronavirus variant, behind a deadly COVID-19 surge in the Latin American country that has raised international alarm, is mutating in ways that could make it better able to evade antibodies, according to scientists studying the virus.Research conducted by the public health institute Fiocruz into the variants circulating in Brazil found mutations in the spike region of the virus that is used to enter and infect cells.Those changes, the scientists said, could make the virus more resistant to vaccines - which target the spike protein - with potentially...…By RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil’s P1 coronavirus variant, behind a deadly COVID-19 surge in the Latin American country that has raised international alarm, is mutating in ways that could make it better able to evade antibodies, according to scientists studying the virus.Research conducted by the public health institute Fiocruz into the variants circulating in Brazil found mutations in the spike region of the virus that is used to enter and infect cells.Those changes, the scientists said, could make the virus more resistant to vaccines - which target the spike protein - with potentially...WW…

By , SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazil has recorded its first confirmed case of the highly contagious coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa, a fresh danger sign for a country already ravaged by the world’s worst daily death toll and scrambling to make space for burials.Scientists warned on Wednesday that yet another new variant could be emerging in Brazil’s inland city of Belo Horizonte.The Federal University of Minas Gerais said in a statement that two samples taken in the city included a previously unseen set of 18 mutations, including some in the same genes modified by the South...…By , SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazil has recorded its first confirmed case of the highly contagious coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa, a fresh danger sign for a country already ravaged by the world’s worst daily death toll and scrambling to make space for burials.Scientists warned on Wednesday that yet another new variant could be emerging in Brazil’s inland city of Belo Horizonte.The Federal University of Minas Gerais said in a statement that two samples taken in the city included a previously unseen set of 18 mutations, including some in the same genes modified by the South...WW…

By Slideshow RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil on Thursday registered a record 100,158 new coronavirus cases within 24 hours, the Health Ministry said, underlining the scale of a snowballing outbreak that is becoming a major political crisis for President Jair Bolsonaro.The record caseload, along with 2,777 more COVID-19 deaths, comes a day after Brazil surpassed 300,000 fatalities from the pandemic, the world’s worst death toll after the United States.Brazil’s outbreak has set weekly records due to a patchy vaccine rollout, a lack of national coordination and an infectious new variant....…By Slideshow RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil on Thursday registered a record 100,158 new coronavirus cases within 24 hours, the Health Ministry said, underlining the scale of a snowballing outbreak that is becoming a major political crisis for President Jair Bolsonaro.The record caseload, along with 2,777 more COVID-19 deaths, comes a day after Brazil surpassed 300,000 fatalities from the pandemic, the world’s worst death toll after the United States.Brazil’s outbreak has set weekly records due to a patchy vaccine rollout, a lack of national coordination and an infectious new variant....WW…

By , RIO DE JANEIRO/SAO PAULO (Reuters) - As Brazil’s coronavirus outbreak spirals out of control, the country is facing a dangerous new shortage, threatening to drive fatalities even higher: a lack of staff in intensive care units.Some medical professionals are burned out after months of grueling, soul-sapping work. Others are simply unable to keep up with the endless flow of critical COVID-19 patients pushing the country’s healthcare system to the brink.“Intensive care doctors are a commodity in short supply,” César Eduardo Fernandes, the president of the Brazilian Medical Association...…By , RIO DE JANEIRO/SAO PAULO (Reuters) - As Brazil’s coronavirus outbreak spirals out of control, the country is facing a dangerous new shortage, threatening to drive fatalities even higher: a lack of staff in intensive care units.Some medical professionals are burned out after months of grueling, soul-sapping work. Others are simply unable to keep up with the endless flow of critical COVID-19 patients pushing the country’s healthcare system to the brink.“Intensive care doctors are a commodity in short supply,” César Eduardo Fernandes, the president of the Brazilian Medical Association...WW…

By , BRASILIA/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian health regulator Anvisa on Sunday approved emergency use of COVID-19 vaccines from China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd and Britain’s AstraZeneca, clearing the way for immunizations as the pandemic enters a deadly second wave.Minutes after Anvisa’s board voted unanimously to approve both vaccines, Monica Calazans, a 54-year-old nurse in Sao Paulo, became the first person to be inoculated in the country, receiving the Chinese vaccine known as CoronaVac.President Jair Bolsonaro, a coronavirus skeptic who has refused to take a vaccine himself, is under...…By , BRASILIA/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian health regulator Anvisa on Sunday approved emergency use of COVID-19 vaccines from China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd and Britain’s AstraZeneca, clearing the way for immunizations as the pandemic enters a deadly second wave.Minutes after Anvisa’s board voted unanimously to approve both vaccines, Monica Calazans, a 54-year-old nurse in Sao Paulo, became the first person to be inoculated in the country, receiving the Chinese vaccine known as CoronaVac.President Jair Bolsonaro, a coronavirus skeptic who has refused to take a vaccine himself, is under...WW…