South America

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 18. /TASS/: The number of coronavirus cases in Brazil has risen by nearly 8,000 to 241,080, according to updated data from the country’s Health Ministry.

As many as 94,122 patients have recovered, another 130,840 remain under medical observation. The death toll has risen by 485 to 16,118. Efforts are underway to determine the causes of another 2,450 deaths, which may be related to the coronavirus.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s firing of the State Department’s top internal watchdog “could be unlawful” if it was intended to retaliate against one of his investigations, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday.

Trump late Friday ousted Inspector General Steve Linick, the fourth inspector general he has fired since early April, following his February acquittal by the Republican-controlled Senate in his impeachment trial.

MONTEVIDEO, May 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Uruguay’s President Luis Lacalle Pou announced that the government had renegotiated the terms of a deal that would see Finnish company UPM invest in the building of a pulp plant in the South American country.

The original $3 billion investment by UPM, which already operates one such plant in Uruguay, was controversial because the new plant is located on the Uruguay River, which forms the border with Argentina.

BRASILIA, May 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The coronavirus pandemic has hit 38 indigenous groups in Brazil, raising fears for populations that have a history of being decimated by outside diseases, the Brazilian Indigenous Peoples’ Association (APIB) said. 

“The virus is reaching indigenous territories across Brazil with frightening speed,” the association said in a statement.

An APIB survey found 446 cases of the new coronavirus and 92 deaths among the affected groups, mainly in the Brazilian Amazon.

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s health minister resigned Friday after less than a month on the job in a sign of continuing upheaval over how the nation should battle the coronavirus pandemic, quitting a day after President Jair Bolsonaro stepped up pressure on him to expand use of the antimalarial drug chloroquine in treating patients.

BRASILIA, May 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras reported a steep net loss for the first quarter of the year and warned more heavy losses were on the horizon because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The company posted a net loss of 48.5 billion reals for the first three months of the year, its worst quarter since it was hit by a huge corruption scandal in 2014-2017.

BRASILIA, May 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazil registered a record number of new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, surpassing France’s tally to become the sixth-worst hit country, as the coronavirus sends the economy towards its worst year since at least 1900.

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 per cent to 177,700.

SANTIAGO, May 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Chile ordered a mandatory total quarantine for the capital Santiago’s seven million people after authorities reported a 60 per cent spike in coronavirus infections in 24 hours, dealing a stunning blow to hopes the economy would soon reopen.

“The most severe measure I must announce is a total quarantine in Greater Santiago,” the location of 80 per cent of the country’s 34,000-plus confirmed cases, Health Minister Jaime Manalich said.

BRASILIA, May 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazil registered its highest COVID-19 death toll for a single day, with 881 new deaths confirmed over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said.

Brazil, the Latin American country hit hardest in the pandemic, appears to be quickly becoming a new global flashpoint.

The total death toll from the new coronavirus has now hit 12,400 in the country, with 177,589 confirmed cases — up 9,258 from the day before.

That makes Brazil the sixth most-affected country, after the United States, Britain, Italy, France and Spain.

CARACAS, May 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Two advisors to Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido resigned after being accused by the government of President Nicolas Maduro of links to a botched “invasion” by mercenaries.

“The political strategist Juan Jose Rendon and deputy Sergio Vergara presented their resignations” to Guaido’s team, its press office said in a statement.