As The Tablet’s foreign correspondents report from Latin America and Africa, some of the poorest communities in the world are caught between the risk of catching a potentially deadly virus on the streets or staying at home and dying of hunger.

“The big issue of the coronavirus in Latin America is hunger,” Clare Dixon, the head of Cafod’s Latin America department, explains. “Of course it’s a health crisis but it is also a social catastrophe – one of hunger, and also human rights, inequality and violence against women.”

In the last week of April there was “a worrying increase” in cases of Covid-19 in Latin America, according to Dr Carissa F. Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO). PAHO’s deputy director, Dr Jarbas Barbosa, said Latin America was like Europe six weeks ago.

Brazil, with 212 million people the most populous country on the continent, not surprisingly has the largest number of cases. Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University on 2 May estimated it has 97,000 cases with 7,100 deaths. In relative terms, Brazil’s pandemic is less severe than those in Peru, Ecuador or indeed the United Kingdom, but the sight of trenches being dug in cemeteries to accommodate rows of coffins has horrified Brazilians.