Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of a new peak in the infection of the new Coronavirus in the Latin America region, as many countries are recording maximum levels of daily cases and facing a shortage of vaccines.
“Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay and Guyana are experiencing a new peak of transmission, with a significant increase in infections, and their health services are saturated,” said Cerro Ugarte, Director of Health Emergencies at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). , An organization affiliated with the World Health Organization, at a press conference.
Meanwhile, according to the Peruvian expert, “In Colombia, infection may soon reach record levels last January,” and intensive care units and hospitals in many Colombian cities, such as Bogotá (the capital) or Medellin, “are reaching their limits”.
Cerro Ugarte added that since the beginning of 2021, Latin America has witnessed an increase in cases of Covid-19 disease in younger age groups, noting that the scarcity of vaccines observed in the region has prompted planning that prioritized the vaccination of the elderly and health professionals.
“The outlook is very worrying in Latin America. The expert emphasized that our countries stand on many fronts, as they face the challenge of obtaining more vaccinations in the context of a huge economic crisis and the saturation of health systems.”
It is possible that this new peak of infection in the region is related to the relaxation of the preventive measures seen in recent months, which coincided with the holiday periods associated with various celebrations, such as Christmas, Carnival or Easter, as he said, in turn. . Sylvain Dejiri, Deputy Director of Health Emergencies at the Pan American Health Organization.
Although the region has received approximately 7.3 million doses of vaccines through the COVAX platform (an initiative led by the World Health Organization that aims to ensure universal and equitable access to vaccines), Cerro Ugarte stressed that Latin America’s needs remain very large and that “many The two countries cannot sign “bilateral agreements” with pharmaceutical companies.
In the Latin America region, there are about 30 million cases of the new Coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2) and more than 900,000 deaths related to Covid-19 disease since the start of the health crisis, and Brazil has been the most affected country. Region (14 million cases and nearly 400,000 deaths).
The Covid-19 disease pandemic has caused at least 31,68,333 deaths worldwide, resulting in more than 150.4 million cases, according to a report issued by Agence France-Presse.
The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2) that was discovered in December 2019 in Wuhan, central China.
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