RIO DE JANEIRO • Brazil is now the world's fastest-growing coronavirus hot spot, accounting for 13 per cent of all new cases globally in the past week.

Just days after it overtook Italy and Spain in total number of confirmed cases, the Latin American nation claimed the No. 3 spot from Britain, reporting 255,368 infections as of yesterday. Brazil is quickly catching up to Russia, which trails only the United States.

For health professionals and long-time Brazil watchers, the rapid spread of the deadly virus is aggravating in its predictability. Brazil's public health system was already underfunded and under strain well before the pandemic.

But a quickly deteriorating political crisis as well as infighting among federal and state officials, and in President Jair Bolsonaro's own Cabinet, leave the nation without a comprehensive strategy to slow the virus spread. Social distancing measures vary from state to state - even city to city - as local leaders implement their own curbs.

Last Friday, Health Minister Nelson Teich quit after less than a month on the job, just as Brazil had a record 17,126 new cases. Almost 17,000 people have died so far.

"Three health ministers in less than a month; fewer than 3,500 tests per million people; no clear federal guidance on how to deal with the pandemic; and varied, uncoordinated containment policies," Mr Alejo Czerwonko, an emerging markets strategist for UBS Financial Services, wrote in a note to clients. It is no surprise that Brazil is a new epicentre, he added.

Emerging markets now account for the five fastest-growing coronavirus hot spots, with Brazil leading the pack followed by India and Saudi Arabia. Daily new cases in Brazil grew 5.5 per cent on average in the past week to 241,080 infections as of Sunday, against a growth rate of 4.1 per cent in Russia.

In the US, home to the biggest outbreak by far with over 1.5 million total cases, new infections are growing on average about 1.6 per cent daily.

BLOOMBERG