South America

BRASILIA, April 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazil said a first case of COVID-19 had been detected among the Yanomami people, an Amazon indigenous group known for its remoteness and its vulnerability to foreign diseases.

“Today we confirmed a case (of the virus) among the Yanomami, which is very worrying,” Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta told a news conference.

“We have to be triply cautious with (indigenous) communities, especially the ones that have very little contact with the outside world.”

QUITO, April 7 (Xinhua) -- A National Court of Justice tribunal in Ecuador on Tuesday sentenced ex-President Rafael Correa to eight years in prison for bribery.

Another 17 people, mostly former aides, received the same sentence for accepting bribes from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht in exchange for juicy government contracts, the national Prosecutor General's Office said on Twitter.

MONTEVIDEO, April 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Uruguay has authorised a humanitarian flight to evacuate Australian and New Zealand passengers stranded on a coronavirus infected cruise ship.

About 128 of the 217 people on board the Australian-owned Greg Mortimer, including passengers and crew, have tested positive for the deadly virus.

Six of those have been taken off suffering from a “life-threatening” illness for treatment in the capital Montevideo.

BRASILIA, April 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US ambassador to Brazil denied reports that the US government took over Chinese supplies of medical equipment that were ordered by Brazil to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Brazilian Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said last week China had ditched some Brazilian equipment orders when the US government sent more than 20 cargo planes to the country to buy the same products.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 6 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) – Brazil’s Health Ministry said, the country’s death toll from COVID-19 climbed to 486, as 11,130 people tested positive to the disease.

In the past 24 hours, 54 patients died, up 12.5 percent compared with the day before, and 852 new infections were detected, placing the mortality rate at 4.4 percent, said the authorities.

Southeast Brazil, the country’s most populous region, registered 60 percent of the cases (6,678) and 72.2 percent of the deaths (351).

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. surgeon general says that Americans should brace for levels of tragedy reminiscent of the Sept. 11 attacks and the bombing of Pearl Harbor, while the nation’s infectious disease chief warned that the new coronavirus may never be completely eradicated from the globe.

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Pushing a shopping cart with two children, César Alegre emerges from the large, deteriorated house near Peru’s presidential palace that is shared by 45 families to search for food. Sometimes he begs in markets. Sometimes he sells candies.

It is a task that was hard at the best of times, but with a month-long quarantine that has forced 32 million Peruvians to stay home and closed restaurants and food kitchens, it has become much harder.

5 April 2020; AFP: With historically low river flows and reservoirs running dry due to drought, people in central Chile have found themselves particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic.

Years of resource exploitation and lax legislation have allowed most reservoirs in that part of the country to run dry.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil’s lower house of Congress approved a constitutional amendment for a “war budget” to separate coronavirus-related spending from the government’s main budget and shield the economy as the country surpassed 10,000 confirmed cases.

The war budget still needs the Senate’s approval by three-fifths of the votes in two rounds expected to take place next week.

Late on Friday, the lower house approved the main text of the bill with 423 votes in favor and one opposed in a second round of voting after a first score of 505 in favor and two against.

LIMA, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra announced on Friday an economic plan to aid companies that have been affected by the state of emergency, currently in place to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country, where 1,595 infections and 55 deaths have been reported.

The legislative decree "Reactiva Peru," or "Reactivate Peru," approved under the exceptional powers granted by Congress to the president, seeks to provide liquidity to companies that have been affected by the quarantine.