The mayor of Brazil’s worst-hit city has described the hundreds of coronavirus deaths in Manaus as ‘a scene out of a horror movie’ as bodies are piled up in refrigerated trucks and bulldozers dig mass graves at cemeteries. 

Mayor Virgilio Neto said his city was ‘no longer in a state of emergency but rather of absolute calamity’ after the daily death rate shot up from 20-30 per day to more than 100 because of the pandemic.

Israel’s embattled health minister Yaakov Litzman has announced that he would step down, following a public uproar over his handling of the coronavirus crisis and his own Covid-19 infection.

Litzman informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would step aside as the country forms a new government.

He went on to describe the US as having a “unique” testing system that means getting to the front of the line depends on “who you know”.

The US is currently conducting approximately 1.5 to 2 million Covid-19 tests per week. Mr Gates’s comments come a day after Dr Anthony Fauci, a key member of the White House coronavirus task force, said he expects that number to double in the next few weeks.

While very little is known about her background the extent of her public profile is actually far greater than is usual in North Korea, seen to be a sign of Jong-un’s move away from more traditional leadership.

The most telling thing about her status in the dictatorship is her title.

Litzman informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would step aside as the country forms a new government. 

He made no mention of his much-criticised performance at the health ministry, which he has led for most of the past decade, and instead said he would take over the construction ministry, the Associated Press reports.