RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil's north-east, a harsh place of arid land, cyclical drought, and crushing poverty, is emerging as the next crisis zone in the novel coronavirus pandemic.
As the virus surges in Brazil — which now has the second-highest number of cases in the world after the United States — the country's poorest region has been hit hard, both by the disease and the painful measures taken to contain it.
The nine states of the north-east have the second-highest number of cases and deaths in Brazil, after the wealthy south-east, where the outbreak began.
The north-east is sometimes called the “Cradle of Brazil,” because it is where the Portuguese founded their first colonial capital, Salvador.
When the virus arrived in Brazil and Bolsonaro downplayed it as a “little flu”, the north-east took matters into its own hands.
