A New Virus Variant Is Rampaging Through Latin America

(Bloomberg) -- Latin America reported more Covid-19 cases and deaths than at any time since the pandemic started in the seven days through Sunday, as new variants rip through the region. Most of those cases and deaths are in Brazil, which has the region’s biggest population but also its deadliest outbreak on a per capita basis. The P.1 variant, first spotted in the Amazon city of Manaus in December, has pushed the health system to breaking point and is spreading beyond Brazil’s borders. Uruguay, which came through the first wave of the virus relatively unscathed, reported more than 1,000 cases per million inhabitants in the past week. That’s the most in the world.

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