Rio de Janeiro (AFP)

The death toll from Covid-19 has exceeded 100,000 deaths in Brazil, the second worst-hit country in the world behind the United States, while in Europe the scorching heat pushes residents to mass on the beaches in defiance of prevention measures .

In the United States, where the coronavirus has killed more than 162,000 people, President Donald Trump unveiled a new executive order aid plan on Saturday evening to support the millions of Americans hit by unemployment or threatened with eviction from their homes because of the pandemic.

As the heatwave hits part of northern Europe, with temperatures exceeding 35 ° C, the authorities are struggling to enforce physical distancing, the wearing of masks and other preventive measures. And this while the epidemic has killed more than 213,000 people on the continent and gives worrying signs of a restart in recent weeks.

- Riot at the beach -

According to the media, which showed images of summer visitors throwing umbrellas at the police, the incidents were triggered by a group of young people being asked to respect the barrier measures.

In the United Kingdom and in Germany too, crowds in search of freshness have gathered on the seashore. Local authorities have warned that some beaches in northern Germany as well as several lakes are expected to close due to the impossibility of maintaining a safety distance of one and a half meters between people.

In Austria, around 5,000 people demonstrated in Vienna on Saturday to demand increased financial support for bars and nightclubs and a relaxation of health rules.

Since the end of July, the wearing of a mask - already almost generalized in closed public places - has gradually gained open air spaces across the planet, in an attempt to stem a rebound in the epidemic.

In France, the mask outdoors will be mandatory from Monday in some very busy areas of Paris.

From July 25, Belgium - one of the countries with the highest number of deaths from Covid-19 compared to its population - imposed it in "any place with high traffic": markets, flea markets, shopping streets . The Madrid region and Romania have taken similar steps.

The pandemic has killed more than 720,000 people worldwide by infecting more than 19 million people since the end of December, according to a count made by AFP on Saturday from official sources.

In the last seven days, almost one in two deaths in the world has occurred in Latin America, which has become the region most bereaved by the coronavirus with more than 216,000 dead.

Brazil on Saturday became the second country to exceed 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus after the United States. The largest country in Latin America, populated by 212 million inhabitants, has also crossed another symbolic threshold, that of 3 million people infected.

- Ravages in the favelas -

The official figures (100,477 dead and 3,012,412 confirmed cases of contamination) must however be put into perspective due to insufficient tests, specialists estimating that the total number of infected people could be up to six times higher.

The pandemic has cast a harsh light on Brazil's inequalities, with the virus wreaking havoc in the favelas, particularly affecting black populations.

On Copacabana beach in Rio, the NGO Rio de Paz organized a release of 1,000 red balloons on Saturday morning in tribute to people who died of Covid-19 in Brazil, with 100 black crosses planted in the sand.

The economic consequences are terrible all over the continent. In Ecuador, nearly 700,000 people have lost their jobs since the start of the epidemic. In Chile, the threshold of 10,000 deaths was crossed on Saturday.

As the United States is on its way to crossing the 5 million Covid-19 case mark, with more than 160,000 dead, the White House and Congressional Democrats had been engaged for two weeks in negotiations to reach a new gigantic plan to support the economy. But these discussions came to nothing.

Donald Trump therefore decided to act by decree. "Enough, we are going to save American jobs and come to the aid of American workers," the president said at a press conference.

Mr. Trump signed four decrees that provide for cuts in payroll taxes, an extended unemployment benefit of $ 400 per week, protections for tenants threatened with eviction and a postponement of the repayment of student loans.

burx-roc / plh

© 2020 AFP