South Africa's Coronavirus Tops in Africa.
BRUNHUBER: Several countries this week have hit milestones in the coronavirus pandemic. India has now become the third nation to surpass two million confirmed cases. It's a sobering number that only the U.S. and Brazil, had reached until now. On Thursday, multiple Latin American countries also saw record highs. Columbia's health ministry also announced almost 12,000 new cases. And Argentina recorded more than 7,500 new cases and 145 deaths. Peru had the highest jump with almost 7,800 new cases. The country has the third highest number of COVID-19 cases in the region with more than 20,000 and almost 200,000 deaths. And as of Friday, Africa surpassed one million confirmed COVID-19 cases. And South Africa has more than half of them, more than 538,000. So, let's go to CNN's David McKenzie in Johannesburg. David, last time we spoke, you know, it was a good news, bad news story, lots of cases in South Africa and rising but relatively few deaths. Is that still the case?</s>DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is certainly more pressure on the health system, and a very scary scenario for any country. And many countries have experienced this kind of surge, Kim. South Africa's health minister saying yesterday that their hospitals are just coping. That they've seen much better results since about mid-June where they started giving steroids to all severe patients. They said that's what led to fewer deaths than they were seeing before that. So, I think because the pandemic hit here later, there are some tools in the tool kit now to deal with these surges. But still, a very scary prospect. And health officials here expect the cases and deaths to continue surging. A WHO surge team, as they call it, more than 40 public health professionals, are headed to South Africa. Some of them are already here, to help the country cope as the fifth worst hit country officially in the world. Kim?</s>BRUNHUBER: As you say, you know, South Africa a huge case count. Is that just because other countries in Africa aren't testing as rigorously, and are there other sort of, hotspots of concern out there?</s>MCKENZIE: Well, there is other ways of seeing what the rates are, including hospital admissions and deaths in countries other than testing. But yes, a big issue, a big reason that some other major countries in terms of population across Africa aren't seeing the numbers is because of a lack of testing. The World Health Organization yesterday sounding the alarm about the lack of testing on the African continent. They said it's, quote, "a constant and concerning challenge." That there aren't enough testing. They're kind of pulling their resources to try and get more testing into the continent. But, so, it's kind of impossible to know really how many cases are transmitting in many parts of the region because of that lack of testing. As of now, they haven't seen hospital systems being completely overwhelmed. But the worry is, many parts of Africa will follow South Africa's example in spike in cases, though those countries don't have the infrastructure that this country does. Kim?</s>BRUNHUBER: All right. Thank you so much for the update on the continent. We appreciate it. David McKenzie in Johannesburg. Well, a greater percentage of Americans are testing positive for the coronavirus. So later this hour we'll see why health experts say that's a key predictor of trouble ahead. But first, we're live in the Middle East with the latest on the investigation into the Beirut explosion. Why so few people in Lebanon trust their government. This is the CNN Newsroom. Stay with us.