From bleepingcomputer.com
Roughly 1,700 applications infected with the Joker Android malware (also known as Bread) have been detected and removed by Google’s Play Protect from the Play Store since the company started tracking it in early 2017.
At least one series of such malicious apps did manage to get into the Play Store as discovered by CSIS Security Group security researchers who found 24 apps with over 472,000 downloads in total during September 2019.