People wait to enter a restaurant amid the COVID-19 outbreak in Mexico City, Mexico, on July 11, 2020. (Xinhua)
- Mexico overtakes Italy with fourth-highest COVID-19 death toll; over 900,000 jobs were lost due to COVID-19 in first half of 2020
- Argentina reports over 100,000 COVID-19 cases
- Brazil's COVID-19 death toll tops 72,000
- Bolivia's economic minister tests positive for COVID-19
BEIJING, July 13 (Xinhua) -- The following are the updates on the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America.
- - - -
MEXICO CITY -- Mexico has overtaken Italy to be the country with the fourth-highest COVID-19 death toll in the world, according to data from the Mexican Health Ministry.
The ministry on Sunday confirmed 276 new deaths over the last 24 hours, taking the country's total deaths to 35,006, while the death toll in Italy is 34,954.
The ministry also confirmed 4,482 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the nationwide tally to 299,750.
Children play at a square in Buenos Aries, Argentina, on July 12, 2020. (Photo by Martin Zabala/Xinhua)
- - - -
BUENOS AIRES -- Argentina's nationwide COVID-19 infections reached 100,166 after 2,657 new cases were reported in the previous 24 hours, the country's Ministry of Health said on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the country's death toll from COVID-19 stood at 1,845 and over 700 people are in intensive care, it added.
Argentina has introduced a ban on commercial flights through Sept. 1 to stem the spread of the virus.
A manicurist works on a customer's hand at a hairdressing shop in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on July 6, 2020. (Str/Xinhua)
- - - -
SAO PAULO -- Brazil on Sunday said its nationwide COVID-19 death toll has reached 72,100, with 631 more patients having succumbed to the novel coronavirus in the previous 24 hours.
The country has reported 24,831 new cases in the same period, bringing the total number of infections to 1,864,681, the health ministry said.
Brazil registers a mortality rate of 3.9 percent, and 1,123,204 people have recovered from COVID-19 in the past four months, according to the ministry's daily updated COVID-19 dashboard.
- - - -
MEXICO CITY -- Mexico lost 921,583 jobs in the first half of 2020 largely due to the impact of COVID-19, the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) reported on Sunday.
In June alone, Mexico lost 83,311 formal jobs as a result of the pandemic, the IMSS said in a report.
In the six-month period, Mexico, Latin America's second-largest economy after Brazil, saw nearly 19.5 million jobs registered with the IMSS.
Of those jobs, 86.6 percent were permanent jobs and the other 13.4 percent temporary ones.
A man wearing a face mask waits to buy bread in La Paz, Bolivia, on June 19, 2020. (Xinhua/Str)
- - - -
LA PAZ -- Bolivian Economic Minister Oscar Ortiz said Sunday that he has tested positive for COVID-19, making him the fourth cabinet member infected with the coronavirus.
"I have tested positive for COVID-19, I feel good. With God's help we will get ahead, and together we will continue working for the economy of Bolivian families," Ortiz, who was named by the Latin American country's interim President Jeanine Anez on Tuesday, wrote in his Facebook account.■