No Filipinos infected with COVID-19 in Brazil, envoy says

MANILA, Philippines — There are no Filipinos infected with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Brazil — which has the second highest number of coronavirus infections worldwide.

According to Philippine Ambassador to Brazil Marichu Mauro, none of the 1,200 Filipinos living and working in the South American nation have contracted the respiratory disease.

“Sa awa ng diyos, wala naman po tayong COVID-19 positive na Filipino so far dito sa Brazil,” Mauro said in a televised press briefing  Thursday.

(By the grace of God, we do not have a COVID-19 positive Filipino so far here in Brazil.)

The diplomat, however, noted that 14 Filipino seafarers whose ship recently docked in Brazil have tested positive for COVID-19, of whom, 11 have already returned to the Philippines, two are still recovering while one had died.

Based on the data culled by the Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Research Center, there are currently over 2.5 million COVID-19 cases in Brazil, including 90,134 deaths and 1,922,802 recoveries.

Brazil has the second most COVID-19 cases, preceded only by the United States, which currently has over 4.4 million confirmed infections.

Worldwide, SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus strain that causes COVID-19, has infected more than 16.9 million people since it was first detected in Hubei, China late last year.

EDV