South American countries have begun easing Covid-19 restrictions even as the region hurtles towards its viral peak.
Some of Brazil’s hardest hit cities, including Rio de Janeiro and Manaus, are starting to allow more activity, while Bolivia and Venezuela are also unwinding restrictions.
The moves comes despite a warning from World Health Organisation that South America has become an “intense zone of transmission for this virus”.
At least 26,000 of the 104,000 Covid-19 deaths in the US were among nursing home resident, a report has revealed.
New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern has announced all restrictions to limit the spread of the coronavirus may be lifted next week, after the country all but eliminated the virus. But borders will remain closed.
“Our strategy of go hard, go early has paid off... in some cases beyond expectations,” she said.
Pakistan’s leader Imran Khan has said people will have to learn to live with the virus as he announced a lifting of the lockdown despite rising infections and deaths, to avert economic meltdown.
The country has reported 72,160 coronavirus cases and 1,543 deaths.
The Queensland government has apologised to the family of a man who was wrongly identified last week as having died from the virus.
Nathan Turner, 30, had been recorded as Australia’s youngest Covid-19 death but succumbed to unrelated medical complications.
