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South America named coronavirus hotspotBy Manila Times

MADRID: Spain said on Saturday (Sunday in Manila) it would let in foreign tourists and restart top league football in the coming weeks, accelerating Europe’s exit from strict coronavirus lockdowns, even as the disease continued its deadly surge in parts of South America.

Brazil saw its death toll passing 22,000 on Saturday from more than 347,000 infections, the second biggest caseload of any country in a pandemic.

Some 5.26 million people have been infected globally, and 340,000 killed by the virus.

But with infection levels stabilizing across Europe, many governments were trying to move away from economically ruinous lockdowns toward lighter physical distancing measures that they hope will revive moribund business and tourism sectors.

In Spain, which has enforced one of the world’s strictest lockdowns since mid-March, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced the resumption of tourism a vital sector for much of Europe and football.

Sanchez sought to reassure visitors, saying that from July 1, “entry for foreign tourists into Spain will resume in secure conditions” and La Liga football could return on June 8.

The United States, meanwhile, still faces the world’s worst outbreak the toll is less than 3,000 deaths away from the grim milestone of 100,000 but Trump has aggressively pushed to reopen the economy, defying the advice of health experts.

The US economy has shed almost 40 million jobs this year and many companies, most recently car rental giant Hertz, have gone to the wall. But most states have begun easing their lockdowns and many on Saturday reopened public beaches.

“We just get tired of being stuck in the house. There’s not much else to do. So I came to the beach,” stay-at-home mother Kayla Lambert said, as her two children played in the surf in Galveston, Texas.

New York, once a virus epicenter, on Saturday announced its lowest daily statewide death toll since early March 84.

“We are making real progress,” said Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

As Europe and the United States took clear steps toward reopening, Latin America emerged as a new virus hotspot.

“In a sense, South America has become a new epicenter for the disease,” World Health Organization emergencies director Mike Ryan said, singling out Brazil.

Many deaths in Brazil have been among younger people, who are often driven by poverty to work despite the threat of infection.

Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who like Trump has played down the severity of the pandemic, has faced increasing pressure amid a rising death toll, with two of his health ministers resigning within weeks.

Scrutiny intensified after release of a video of a cabinet meeting on April 22 as the country was fast becoming a virus flashpoint in which Bolsonaro and his deputies barely mentioned the pandemic.

One of the few mentions of Covid-19 came when the environment minister suggested the government take advantage of the distraction created by the pandemic to relax environmental protection rules.