Global COVID-19 cases top 25 million

Funeral workers transport by boat a coffin containing the body of an 86-year-old woman who lived by the Negro River and is a suspected to have died of COVID-19, near Manaus, Brazil. Pic/AP

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases globally has topped 25 million. That's according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.

The US leads the count with 5.9 million cases, followed by Brazil with 3.8 million and India with 3.5 million. Global deaths from COVID-19 stand at over 842,000, with the US having the highest number with 182,779, followed by Brazil with 120,262 and Mexico with 63,819.

Meanwhile, in Indonesia a more infectious strain of the coronavirus has been found, reported Reuters. Herawati Sudoyo, the deputy director of the Jakarta-based Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, said on Sunday that more study is needed on the "infectious but milder" D614G mutation to ascertain if it caused the recent surge in infections.

Indonesia on Sunday reported 2,858 new cases, taking the total tally to 1,72,053, including 7,343 COVID-19 deaths. Syahrizal Syarif, an epidemiologist with the University of Indonesia, warned that the total count may rise to 5 lakh by end of 2020. "The situation is serious .... Local transmission currently is out of control," Reuters quoted Syarif as saying.

'Trump event could spread COVID-19'

Health experts have expressed concern about President Donald Trump's Republican convention event, saying some of his 1,500 guests may have inadvertently brought and spread the virus to others. "I worry about these individuals infecting one another and most certainly going back to their home," said Dr Leana Wen, a professor at George Washington University.

Death and denial in Brazil's Amazon capital

As the white van approached Perfect Love Street, one by one chatting neighbors fell silent, covered their mouths and noses and scattered. Men in body suits carried an empty coffin into the small house where Edgar Silva had spent two feverish days gasping for air before drawing his last breath on May 12.

"It wasn't COVID," Silva's daughter, Eliete das Graças insisted to the funerary workers. She swore her 83-year-old father had died of Alzheimer's. But Silva, like the vast majority of those dying at home, was never tested for the COVID-19. The doctor who signed his death certificate never saw his body before determining the cause: "cardiorespiratory arrest." His death wasn't counted as one of Brazil's pandemic victims.

Manaus is one of the hardest hit cities in Brazil and has officially lost over 23,000 lives to the virus. But in the absence of evidence proving otherwise, relatives are quick to deny the possibility that COVID-19 claimed their loved ones, meaning that the toll is likely a vast undercount.

Doctors and psychologists say denial at the grassroots stems from a mixture of misinformation, lack of education, insufficient testing and conflicting messages from the country's leaders.

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