The pandemic collapses systems again and triggers deaths in America | WORLD

The coronavirus crisis in America, the most affected continent with some 43 million cases and almost a million deaths, has been exacerbated this week by the new wave of the pandemic, causing more deaths due to hospital overflow and lack of resources essentials like oxygen.

“Throughout our region, especially in North and South America, many hospitals are operating at or very close to capacity.”Said Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), in a weekly balance published today on Twitter and in which he warns of the high occupancy in intensive care units and the shortage of oxygen.

The warning comes at a time when the continent is going through a new wave of the pandemic, with an upward trend in daily cases, against a slight decline in Europe and a stabilization in South Asia.

Latin America: about 18 million cases and more than 555,000 deaths

At the global level, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), cases amount to 94.1 million and deaths to 2.03 million, almost 50% of these in America.

America accumulates about 43 million cases (around 18 million in Latin America), Europe 30 million and South Asia 12.5 million.

Also, some 970,000 people have lost their lives in the American continent due to COVID-19 (more than 555,000 in Latin America), compared to 674,000 in Europe and 192,000 in South Asia.

The United States continues to be the country with the most absolute cases (24.2 million), followed by India (10.5 million), Brazil (8.5 million) and Russia (3.6 million), according to data from the US Johns Hopkins University.

The United States, which with more than 404,000 deaths also reports the highest number of deaths in the world, celebrated just this Wednesday one year of the confirmation of the first case, with a new president, Joe Biden, who has promised to put a stop to it. to the pandemic.

In the number of infections in America, that nation is followed by Brazil (which also reports some 211,000 deaths), Colombia (almost 2 million cases and about 50,000 deaths), Argentina (1.8 million infected and 46,000 deaths) Mexico (1.6 million of infected and more than 142,000 deaths) and Peru (one million cases and 39,000 deaths).

Collapse and record of infections in the region

In just one week “We saw more than 2.5 million new cases of COVID-19 in the Americas – equivalent to more than half of all infections globally – and 42,000 people lost their lives as a result of the pandemic”, Emphasized the Director of PAHO in her balance, adding that she is“particularly worried about the next few weeks”.

The region is going through another wave of the coronavirus, which was exacerbated by the rebound in infections during the New Year’s Eve holidays and which remains on a growing curve, causing the overflow in services.

That is the case of Brazil, which on Tuesday reported more than 1,000 deaths and 60,000 cases of coronavirus in just 24 hours and which is facing a serious crisis in the state of Amazonas.

According to data from the Government itself, as a consequence of the high number of hospitalized patients with coronavirus, daily oxygen consumption in the Amazon jumped to 76,000 cubic meters per day, almost three times higher than that registered in March 2020, when Manaus, the regional capital , also experienced a health crisis due to the first wave of the pandemic.

The Government of Manaus, capital of that state, expressed, however, this Wednesday its confidence that the arrival of some 136,000 cubic meters of oxygen donated by Venezuela will help to stop the collapse, since the shortage has caused the death of at least 51 people in the region.

The second wave has also impacted Chile, amid the arrival of the summer season and the increase in holiday traffic, especially from the capital to the south, which has aggravated the situation in some cities that are on the edge of the sanitary collapse.

While Paraguay, where they are still waiting for an agreement to be finalized to access a vaccine soon, the country is at the limit of the response capacity of public hospitals after accumulating 123,359 confirmed positives and 2,536 deaths.

Vaccination advances

Regarding vaccination, PAHO assured that it works with the countries in the preparation to vaccinate their populations, in addition to supporting the COVAX mechanism so that the doses are available in all the countries of the continent.

For now, the agency indicates, 18 countries have prepared national vaccination deployment plans and 23 have completed the Vaccine Readiness Assessment.

Meanwhile, the nations that reached direct agreements with the manufacturers continue to advance in immunization, with Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica and Chile leading the way, as they were the first to begin vaccinations.

These were joined this week by Brazil and Panama, a country that began its immunization campaign with the Pfizer / BioNtech vaccine on Wednesday, after the arrival of the first batch, although with fewer doses than had been agreed.

Chile (about 680,000 infections and around 17,500 deaths) also received a new shipment of 44,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine this Wednesday, while the second wave continues to gain strength in the country and the rate of positivity over the total PCR carried out in the last hours it reached 8.6%, one of the highest in weeks.

Meanwhile, Ecuador (234,315 infected and more than 14,400 deaths) awaited this Wednesday the arrival of the first shipment of Pfizer vaccines, to protect front-line personnel facing the pandemic, as well as the elderly.

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