Cuba, which kept coronavirus infections low last year, now has the highest rate of contagion per capita in Latin America that has strained its healthcare sector and helped stoke rare protests that have roiled the island.

The Caribbean nation of 11 million people reported nearly 4,000 confirmed cases per million residents over the last week, nine times more than the world average and more than any other country in the Americas for its size.

The outbreak, fuelled by the arrival of the more contagious Delta variant first identified in India, has pushed hospitals at the virus epicentre in the province of Matanzas to the brink.

Read the full Reuters story here.