Brazil hits record high for new coronavirus cases

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The country's health ministry reported 19,951 new cases in the previous 24 hours, bringing the total to 291,579 confirmed cases.

This new surge tops the previous record set Tuesday. Reported deaths caused by coronavirus also increased by 888 on Wednesday, bringing to the country's total to 18,859 deaths, the ministry said.

Asked about Brazil's skyrocketing numbers on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said that he was mulling a travel ban on Brazil.

"We are considering it," Trump said, adding: "We hope that we're not going to have a problem. The governor of Florida is doing very, very well testing -- in particular Florida, because a big majority come in to Florida. Brazil has gone more or less herd, and they're having problems.

"I worry about everything, I don't want people coming in here and infecting our people," Trump said, "I don't want people over there sick, either."

Amid the spiraling health crisis, Brazil's lower house of Congress has approved a proposed law that would make use the use of personal protection masks in public spaces mandatory.

The proposed law would require people to wear any form of face covering in areas that are accessible to the public, including parks, sidewalks, public transportation and even private buildings where there is a high level of foot traffic. Individuals not wearing masks would be fined up to $52.

The proposal needs approval by the Senate and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who rarely wears facial coverings. It is unclear when the Senate vote will happen.

Health system on the brink

Brazil's alarming numbers come days after Sao Paulo's mayor warned that its health system could be overwhelmed very soon if residents don't follow social distancing guidelines. Officials in the major city of 12 million have declared a five-day holiday in a bid to get residents to stay home.

By Monday, Brazil achieved the grim record of having the third-highest number of coronavirus cases in the world, behind the United States and Russia.

Yet Bolsonaro continues to dismiss the threat of the virus, saying quarantines and lockdowns could have a worse impact on Brazil's economy.

He has repeatedly dismissed Covid-19 as a "little flu" and urged businesses to reopen, even as many governors scramble to implement social isolation measures and slow the spread.

The country lost its second health minister in a month last week. Nelson Teich stepped down after clashing with Bolsonaro over the country's coronavirus strategy. In April, Bolsonaro fired his predecessor, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, after a prolonged standoff.

Teich clashed with Bolsonaro over the use of malaria drugs to treat the virus and social isolation measures.

Despite the political crisis, the populist leader continues to tout chloroquine as a potential wonder drug against the new coronavirus -- like his US counterpart Trump -- even though it is an unproven treatment for Covid-19.

Bolsonaro tweeted on Wednesday that there will be new guidelines to expand the use of chloroquine.

"Today we will have a new protocol on chloroquine" issued by the Ministry of Health, Bolsonaro wrote, calling it "a hope, according to the many who have used it."

Brazil's medical authority approved the use of hydroxychloroquine -- which has been described as the less toxic derivative of chloroquine -- in April in serious cases of coronavirus if the doctor and patient agree. Bolsonaro has since pushed for approval to use the drug in less serious cases.

It follows Trump's claim on Monday that he is taking daily doses of hydroxychloroquine, even though medical experts, the US Food and Drug Administration and at least one study have questioned its efficacy and warn of potentially harmful side effects.

CNN's Shasta Darlington reported from Sao Paolo, Tara John reported from London, and Flora Charner reported from Atlanta. CNN's Tatiana Arias contributed to this report.

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Huawei says its operating system can rival Google, Apple — but experts say it might be a struggle

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A guest holds her phone showing a picture taken during Huawei's press conference unveiling its new HarmonyOS operating system in Dongguan, Guangdong province on August 9, 2019.

Fred Dufour | AFP| Getty Images

A top Huawei executive said the Chinese company's mobile operating system is able to compete with Google and Apple — but analysts told CNBC that might be tough to achieve, especially in markets outside China where U.S. technology giants have a strong foothold.

"Huawei is in a position to deliver an ecosystem that is on par with Google's and Apple's ecosystems," Huawei's vice president of consumer cloud services in its consumer business, Eric Tan, said on Tuesday. "We have the confidence to be one of the top ecosystem developers in the world." 

He was speaking about the company's own operating system, called the HarmonyOS, which was launched in August.

It comes as the Chinese technology giant attempts to forge a path ahead without American technology. 

Huawei's smartphones have relied on Google's Android operating system for a number of years. But in 2019, the Chinese firm was put on a U.S. blacklist which restricted its access to American technology and meant it was no longer able to use licensed Android software on its handsets.

In response, Huawei launched its own operating system that same year.

On Tuesday, Huawei executives spoke about HarmonyOS, playing up its ability to be an operating system that can work across a number of devices rather than just smartphones alone, which could appeal to developers looking to make apps that work on different hardware.

The management also talked about the Huawei Mobile Services (HMS), a collection of various Huawei apps from maps to payments to its app store. 

Huawei's claim about being able to deliver an ecosystem "on par" with Google's and Apple's is a big one, considering the company only launched its operating system less than a year ago.

But Tan backed up his comments by revealing that by the end of March, Huawei had 1.4 million developers on board — up 115% from the end of the first quarter of 2019. 

In China, where Huawei is the biggest smartphone maker by market share, not having access to Google's Android is not a huge problem. That's because Google services, such as search, are blocked in the country and users can't really use them anyway. That also means Huawei's HarmonyOS has a chance of being successful in the domestic market. 

So overall without marquee developers on board its going to be a tough sell.

Neil Shah

Counterpoint Research

However, in international markets where apps are built on Google's services — integrating maps or payments, for example — Huawei could find its HarmonyOS a tough sell.

"It won't be easy for Huawei to build up a library of premier applications outside of China, as many of them rely on Google for things like digital rights management, location, payment, and notification services," Bryan Ma, vice president of devices research at IDC, told CNBC.

Huawei was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

"Developers oftentimes have to be selective on which projects they spend their time on, and a key factor in that decision-making is whether there is enough of a critical mass in the user base to justify the time and effort spent in porting applications over," Ma said.

Huawei's HMS is similar to Google Mobile Services and offers developers kits that can be used to integrate things like location services into apps. The Chinese firm said there are 60,000 apps using so-called HMS Core services, but it did not break down what countries or regions those are in. 

Neil Shah, research director at Counterpoint Research, called the number of apps "limited" and said Huawei is still missing major apps. 

"Outside of China, it will be struggle as most of the marquee applications come from big profile U.S. developers — Netflix, Facebook properties (Instagram, WhatsApp), Google apps, etc — which are obviously banned to collaborate with Huawei," Shah said.

"So overall, without marquee developers on board, it's going to be a tough sell."

Indeed, a number of major apps that are important in international markets are not on Huawei's app store, called the AppGallery. Users cannot download any Google apps or Facebook-owned services. Netflix or Spotify are not available either. 

However, it does have the Amazon Shopping app, as well as video-sharing app TikTok, which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance. 

Huawei has expressed its desire to get Google apps onto the AppGallery.

"We hope Google services can be available through our AppGallery, just like how Google services are available through Apple's App Store," Eric Xu, rotating chairman at Huawei said in an interview with CNBC in March. 

But this will be a challenge, according to Ma. 

"Legal considerations aside, I find it highly unlikely that Google would publish its own apps into the AppGallery, as they have the same hooks into its services as third parties do. And if anything, they want to drive usage of their services," he said.

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CNN anchor wants you to hear this quote from Trump

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CNN's Chris Cuomo argues that President Trump doesn't like coronavirus testing, tracing or masks because they may make people "less pumped to reopen recklessly."