The milestone of five million cases of the new coronavirus was crossed on Sunday, August 9, in the United States, the country still the most affected in the world. In second place, Brazil passed the 100,000 dead threshold on Saturday.

The pandemic caused by Covid-19 has killed more than 162,000 people in the United States. The contaminations curve has been rising sharply since the end of June, and the number of new cases recorded there reached 70,000 per day in mid-July.

"I survived the corona"

To support the millions of his fellow citizens stricken by unemployment or threatened with eviction from their homes because of the health crisis, US President Donald Trump unveiled a new aid plan on Saturday evening.

"Enough, we are going to save American jobs and come to the aid of American workers," said the billionaire at a press conference given at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Donald Trump signed four documents that provide for a wage freeze, an extended unemployment benefit of $ 400 per week, protections for tenants threatened with eviction and a postponement of the repayment of student loans.

President @ realDonaldTrump's second executive order today protects Americans from eviction. pic.twitter.com/v0v0XEtrwN

- The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 8, 2020

The new record did not discourage thousands of motorcyclists from taking to the Midwestern road to participate in the world's largest annual motorcycling gathering, where T-shirts stamped among other things "I survived the corona" were offered at the sale.

More than three million cases in Brazil

In second place among the hardest hit countries, Brazil officially has more than three million infected people. A figure which, like that of the dead, is undoubtedly underestimated because of the insufficient number of tests, experts say.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who did not speak on this subject, caused anger on social networks by contenting himself with a tweet highlighting the number of recovered patients, and at the same time celebrating a victory of his favorite football team on Facebook.

In the largest country in Latin America, with 212 million inhabitants, the pandemic has shed a harsh light on inequalities, the virus having wreaked havoc in the favelas and particularly affecting black populations.

In the past seven days, nearly one in two deaths worldwide has occurred in Latin America.

The economic consequences are terrible everywhere on this subcontinent. In Ecuador, nearly 700,000 people have lost their jobs since the start of the epidemic.

Worldwide, the virus has killed nearly 730,000 people and infected more than 19 million in total since the end of December, according to a count made by AFP on Sunday from official sources.

With AFP

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