World Coronavirus Dispatch: Is Brazil trying to hide the true toll numbers?

Meanwhile, India enters the list of top 5 infected nations; European airlines set to resume operations

Brazil's government has stopped publishing a running total of coronavirus deaths and infections in an extraordinary move that critics call an attempt to hide the true toll of the disease in Latin America's largest nation.

Brazil’s last official numbers showed it had recorded over 34,000 deaths related to the coronavirus, the third-highest number in the world, just ahead of Italy. It reported nearly 615,000 infections, putting it at the second-highest, behind the United States. Read more here 

Let’s look at the global statistics:

Total Confirmed Cases: 6,898,613

Change Over Yesterday: 259,521

Total Deaths: 399,832

Total Recovered: 3,087,714

Nations hit with most cases: US (1,920,061), Brazil (672,846), Russia (458,102), UK (286,294) and India (247,040)

Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

India enters the list of top-five infected nations: With 0.24 million cases, India is now the fifth most-infected nation, overtaking Spain. Top four metropolitans Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai account for nearly half of the nationwide tally. Read more here

European airlines set to resume operations: EasyJet aims to restart on June 15, with Ryanair Holdings following a few weeks later and targeting half its usual traffic by the third quarter. Wizz Air Holdings, Europe’s third-largest airline, expects to restore as much as 60 percent of normal capacity during summer. Read more here

Protests in Rome against government’s handling of coronavirus: A rally by Italian far-right extremists and hardcore football fans over the government's response to coronavirus has turned briefly violent. The clashes in the centre of the capital, Rome, started after a fight between demonstrators. Read more here

Coronavirus research already 100 times more than SARS: In four months, about 10,000 research papers were produced on the novel coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan, China, last year. That compares with just 100 or so papers on SARS, as of seven months after that outbreak began in 2002. Read more here

Specials 

Investors are piling into African assets as if the coronavirus never happened: Seven of the 12 top-performing developing-nation bond markets this quarter are in Africa. Investors are looking past the risks as unprecedented stimulus by governments and central banks around the world drives down the dollar and re-awakens the search for yield. Read here to know why 

The introverts’ and extroverts; guide to thriving in the lockdown: Under extreme and prolonged stress, such as having to work at home in isolation for weeks, people may see their behaviour flip, turning them into an ugly version of their opposite personality type. Introverts can appear to become withdrawn. If the stress continues for too long or is extreme, their psyche flips to what’s known as “being in the grip” of the opposing characteristic. Extroverts, by contrast, get louder as they try to get input from others and seek the contact they thrive on. The lack of attention they face in isolation can cause them to become uncharacteristically withdrawn, to an inner world that’s dark and dismal. Read more here

Build vaccine factories in poor regions as economic aid: Bill Gates: Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates sees a way to ensure that poorer regions won’t be left behind in the rush for Covid-19 vaccines: invest in factories all over the world to produce billions of doses. Gates is focusing on the most promising vaccine candidates, committing funds to help ensure production capacity is ready even before any have proven to work. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is also helping purchase potential shots for low-income countries with $100 million. Read more here

Interactive 

What have the scientists uncovered six months on: Learn all about the progress in vaccine development, research on the virus strain and pandemic containment strategies here