South America has become “a new epicentre” of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said, following a surge in the number of Covid-19 infections, AFP reported.

“In a sense, South America has become a new epicentre for the disease. We have seen many South American countries with increasing numbers of cases,” WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan told a virtual news conference.

“Clearly there is a concern across many of those countries, but clearly the most affected is Brazil at this point.”