May 23, 2020 – Brazil surpasses Russia on Friday as the country with the second-highest number of coronavirus affected patients worldwide behind the United States, as the South American continent emerged as the new epicenter of the pandemic.

As per the last count, the South American country has now 330,854 Covid-19 cases, taking the casualty figure to 21,048. 

Moreover, the experts say Brazil is still under-testing and the real figures may shoot up to 15 times higher or more.

The surge in the coronavirus affected cases in Brazil coincides with the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the South American continent as the ‘new epicenter’ of the pandemic.

‘’Clearly, there is a concern across many of those countries, but clearly the most affected is Brazil at this point,’’ said Mike Ryan, WHO emergencies director, in a press statement also indicated the fact that crisis is not expected to peak in Brazil until June.

The United States has, so far, registered over 1.7 million cases and nearly 96,000 deaths, as per the tally curated by John Hopkins University.

Russia has reported 326,412 cases and 3,200 deaths, as per the latest count by May 22, 2020.

Jair Bolsanaro, Brazillian far-right president initially condemned the WHO recommended stay-at-home measure, imposed by many nations across the world after the outbreak news coming up from the rest of the world.