Coronavirus cases continued to drop in much of Asia on Saturday but a surge of infections in Latin America has led to health chiefs describing it as the "new epicentre" of the pandemic.
China, where the outbreak of Covid-19 began late last year, has reported no new confirmed cases for the first time.
But cases continue to rise in Central and South America, with Mexico and Brazil reporting record numbers of infections and deaths almost daily this week.
Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organisation's emergencies programme, said South America has become the "new epicentre for the disease" at a news briefing from the agency's Geneva's headquarters.
“We’ve seen many South American countries with increasing numbers of cases and clearly there’s a concern across many of those countries, but certainly the most affected is Brazil at this point,” said Mr Ryan.
“In a sense, South America has become a new epicentre for the disease."
Mr Ryan said Brazil is the “most affected” and authorities there have approved the use of the controversial anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine for treatment of the virus.
He stressed that clinical evidence does not support the drug’s widespread use against the disease, given its risks.
Brazil has reported more than 330,000 confirmed cases, surpassing Russia to become the nation with the second-highest number of infections, behind only the US, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.
The country also has recorded more than 21,000 deaths, though experts believe the numbers are higher.
The virus “does not forgive”, Uber driver Bruno Almeida de Mello said at the burial of his grandmother Vandelma Rosa, 66, in Rio de Janeiro.
“It does not choose race or if you are rich or poor, black or white. It’s a cruel disease," said Mr de Mello.
Mr de Mello said his grandmother’s death certificate reads “suspected of Covid-19” but the hospital did not have the tests necessary to confirm it. That means her death was not counted in the official toll.
Experts said the surging deaths across Latin America showed the limits of government action in a region where millions have informal jobs and many police forces are weak, corrupt or unable to enforce restrictions.
Infections also rose and intensive care units were swamped in Peru, Chile and Ecuador, countries lauded for imposing early and aggressive business shutdowns and quarantines.
The situation regarding the pandemic differs in Asia, where in Japan new cases have dwindled to double-digit figures each day. Deaths related to the coronavirus are below 800 people.
The Bank of Japan, which recently announced measures to ensure easy lending in the world’s third largest economy, said in a joint statement with the government that both sides “will work together to bring the Japanese economy back again on the post-pandemic solid growth track”.
South Korea had been reporting around 500 new cases a day in early March before using aggressive tracing and testing to stabilise its outbreak. More than 200 of the recent infections have been linked to clubgoers in Seoul as the country began easing restrictions.
Meanwhile, the United Nations said there have been 75 cases of Covid-19 in the UN’s 13 far-flung peacekeeping missions, which have a total of 110,000 troops, police and personnel.
UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told reporters that preventive measures taken early on in the crisis appear to have prevented the spread of the virus, with the exception of conflict-torn Mali where 58 cases were reported. He said there have been no deaths and none of the cases was serious.
