In Latin America only one in 10 people is vaccinated against the coronavirus, despite the fact that the cases continue to increase and the threat posed by the new variants of the disease that circulate in the region.
In this context, the director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Carissa Etienne, asked the G7 countries to give priority to this region when donating one billion vaccines as promised at the last summit. “Only one in ten people has been vaccinated in this part of the world, where hospitals are full, variants circulate rapidly and vaccines are urgently needed today“Etienne said.
In the opinion of the official, “Countries that are suffering the most must be at the front of the line” to receive vaccine donations. It is worth noting that a dozen countries concentrate about 80% of the doses produced against covid-19.
When reporting on the lethal trajectory of the pandemic, the PAHO Director stressed that In the last week, more than 1.1 million new cases and 31,000 deaths were registered in America.
While, Since the beginning of the pandemic, the 33 countries that make up Latin America and the Caribbean -according to the UN- have accounted for more than 35 million cases of covid-19 and more than 1.2 million deaths. These figures represent 20 percent of infections and about a third of deaths worldwide, when the region only represents 8 percent of the planet’s population.
Half of all infections (17.5 million) registered in this region occurred in Brazil, which is the third country in the world with the most cases in absolute terms, only behind the United States and India. Brazil is also the second country with the most deaths on the planet (501,000), behind again the United States and ahead of India and Mexico, which is in fourth place with 231,000 deaths.
The country in the world with the highest mortality rate is also in the Latin American region: Peru, whose ratio exceeds 590 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants after the statistical adjustment he made in early June. The other four most populous countries in Latin America – Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and Mexico – are also among the 20 with the most deaths in relation to their population.
“The trends we are seeing are clear: Across the region, this year has been worse than last. In many places, infections are higher now than at any time during this pandemic, “Etienne noted. He insisted that it will take “years” to control the virus in this region if vaccination is not advanced.
How is the immunization campaign in Latin America
In the past week, The United States Government announced that it will soften -just slightly- the blockade against Venezuela to allow the acquisition of materials related to the pandemic, such as vaccines, masks, oxygen tanks or ventilators. The decision comes after an analysis within Joe Biden’s administration to assess whether sanctions “are unduly hampering responses to the pandemic” by affected countries.
This will allow the South American country, which has received 3.23 million vaccines so far, to advance its vaccination plan. The Venezuelan Executive expects to complete 22 million doses to immunize 70 percent of the population.
For its part, Mexico premiered in Baja California the first doses of the 1.35 million Johnson & Johnson vaccines donated by the United States to reopen the border, closed to non-essential travel for 15 months.
The authorities enabled 16 vaccination points in the 6 municipalities of the state. Up to now, Mexico supplied just over 38 million doses of different drugs and more than 15 million citizens completed their vaccination schedule in a country of 126 million inhabitants.
While, Argentina reached 18,175,234 vaccines applied, of which 14,483,723 correspond to the first dose, and 3,691,511 to the second, according to the Public Vaccination Monitoring. For this week it is estimated that the number of vaccines that will reach Ezeiza will exceed five million doses on two flights from China, two flights from the United States and two from Moscow.
Finally, Brazil applied a record 2.56 million vaccines nationwide on Thursday (2.09 million with the first dose and 132,686 with the second), which in five months has already offered the first dose to 60.38 million people, 28.5 percent of its 212 million inhabitants. The second dose, however, was only applied to 24.03 million Brazilians, 11.4 percent of the population..
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