Brazilian President threatens WHO exit as coronavirus deaths rise

Brazilian President JairBolsonaro threatened to pull his country out of the World Health Organization after the UN agency warned Latin American governments about the risk of lifting lockdowns before slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus throughout the region.

A new Brazilian record for daily COVID-19 fatalities pushed the countys death toll past that of Italy late on Thursday, but Bolsonaro continues to argue for quickly lifting state isolation orders, arguing that the economic costs outweigh public health risks.

Latin Americas most populous nations, Brazil and Mexico, are seeing the highest rates of new infections, though the pandemic is also gathering pace in countries such as Peru, Colombia, Chile and Bolivia.

Overall, more than 1.1 million Latin Americans have been infected. While most leaders have taken the pandemic more seriously than Bolsonaro, some politicians that backed strict lockdowns in March and April are pushing to open economies back up as hunger and poverty grow.

In an editorial running the length of newspaper Folha de S. Paulos front page, the Brazilian daily highlighted that just 100 days had passed since Bolsonaro described the virus now killing a Brazilian per minute as a little flu.

While you were reading this, another Brazilian died from the coronavirus, the newspaper said.

In comments to journalists, Bolsonaro said Brazil will consider leaving the WHO unless it ceases to be a partisan political organisation.

US President Donald Trump, an ideological ally of Bolsonaro, said last month that the United States would end its own relationship with the WHO, accusing it of becoming a puppet of China, where the coronavirus first emerged.