Hospitals in Brazil's major city 'near collapse'
The mayor of Brazil's most significant city, São Paulo, has said its health system could collapse as demand grows for emergency beds to deal with coronavirus cases.
Bruno Covas said the city's public hospitals had reached 90% and could run out of space in about two weeks.
São Paulo is probably the country's worst-hit regions, with almost 3,000 deaths so far.
On Saturday, Brazil overtook Spain and Italy to be the country with the fourth major number of infections.
The health ministry reported 7,938 new cases during the past 24 hours, taking the full total above 241,000. Only the united states, Russia and the UK have higher numbers.
The death toll in the Latin American nation over 24 hours was 485, and therefore the total number of deaths is 16,118 - the world's fifth-highest figure.
Health authorities in Brazil have warned that the true number of confirmed infections in the country may be far greater than the official records, due to too little testing.
Brazil's far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has been strongly criticised both in the home and abroad for his handling of the country's escalating coronavirus crisis.
He defied global health advice on social distancing on Sunday when he posed for photographs with supporters and children in the capital, Brasília.
What did São Paulo's mayor say?
Mr Covas said he was now in crisis talks with the state governor over introducing a strict lockdown to attempt to slow the contagion before hospitals were overwhelmed.
The governor of São Paulo state controls the authorities, and his support will be essential if a lockdown is to succeed.
São Paulo gets the population around 12 million, and official figures show that the majority of residents have already been flouting social distancing rules.
