According to Reuters data, the cases of COVID-19 in the world surpassed the mark of 7 million this Saturday. The number from the news agency it’s higher than the ones from the Johns Hopkins University (around 6.8 million infected people) and the World Health Organization (WHO), whose report points out that there are 6.6 million cases.

About 30% of these cases, or 2 million infections, are in the United States, while 15% are in Latin America. The region has the second-largest number of confirmed cases.

Worldwide, deaths from the new coronavirus are approaching 400,000. The U.S. accounts for about 25% of deaths, but in South America, the record has grown rapidly, driven by Brazil.

The country has 651,980 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 35,311 deaths due to the disease, according to data from the health state secretaries gathered by the news portal G1.

Several states have increased the number of tests, and deaths continue at an accelerated rate, in the range of more than 1,000 a day, which, according to experts, shows that the underreporting of cases in the country is really high.

In the past few days, the Ministry of Health, which has already lost two ministers in the midst of the pandemic, has been delaying the release of data on the new coronavirus.

Since Wednesday, the data began to be released only at 10 pm, three hours after the previous announcements. In addition to the delay, the balance had its shape changed and failed to bring the total number of deaths and contaminated by the virus since the beginning of the pandemic.

Scientists and experts are concerned with the current stance of the Brazilian federal government, as delays in the dissemination of data hinder the construction of strategies to fight the disease and the population’s own awareness about the risks concerning the new coronavirus.