- Hardest hit subcontinent on the planet
- Only one in ten people vaccinated
In Latin America and the Caribbean, only one in ten people has been vaccinated against covid-19. That is the difficult reality of the region hardest hit by the pandemic worldwide. Today it adds more than 1.2 million deaths and 36 million infections. In mortality it slightly exceeds Europe and doubles the United States-Canada axis. It is also well above Asia, which registers almost 560 thousand deaths.
In fact, last Thursday the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) when calling on the G7 (which brings together several of the main world powers) to give priority to the subcontinent when it comes to donating one billion vaccines, warned that in Most of the nations in the area, hospital care was at maximum capacity, the variants of the virus have a wide circulation and the rates of infections and deaths are dramatic.
The health rector is not exaggerating, since the crisis due to the coronavirus in this region of 600 million people increases day after day. The director of the entity warned that in the last week more than 1.1 million new cases and 31 thousand deaths were registered in the entire American continent. Another alarming fact: in the last month four of the five countries with the highest number of weekly deaths in the world were located in America. A more dramatic figure: on Saturday 9,048 new deaths and 354,462 infections were registered globally. Within this framework, the countries with the most deaths were Brazil with 2,301, India (1,576) and Colombia (589).
Paradoxically, unlike the reluctance of some population sectors to be vaccinated in several of the most developed nations (which account for 80% of the distribution of biologicals), in Latin America and the Caribbean the situation is the opposite: people urge to be immunized but there is no way to meet this anguishing demand. The efforts of governments to acquire vaccines and the collaboration of the Covax mechanism (of the World Health Organization) have made it possible to accelerate vaccination in the most recent two-month period, but it is still a long way from the so-called “herd immunity”. On the contrary, unlike the United States or some European countries where the emergency and even the use of masks is lagging behind, in this subcontinent the possibility of quarantines and partial confinements appears again.
The reports are very worrying. Brazil exceeded the barrier of 500 thousand deaths (second most affected country in the world after the US) and could suffer a third wave of the virus, since only 12% of its population has already received two doses of the vaccines. Peru (190,000 deaths) and Paraguay (11,000) are among the countries with the highest fatality rate on the planet for every 100,000 inhabitants. Last week in Mexico (231 thousand deaths) there was a slight increase in cases, while in the Caribbean the alert is on in Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago. In Central America, they warn an increase in infections in Belize, Panama and Guatemala.
It is no less complicated than the fact that due to vaccination (the rate of which is quite uneven) and the higher rate of infection derived from new strains, covid-19 is increasingly attacking young people between 25 and 40 years.
And Colombia? The situation is not easy in our country either. Despite being about to complete 15 million vaccines applied and almost 4.7 million people already with the two doses, the rates of deaths and infections do not decrease. We have been more than two weeks with deaths above 550 a day and more than 24 thousand infections per day. In fact, June is already the most critical month in the entire pandemic. This weekend it was about to exceed 100,000 fatalities and in the next few days it will reach 4 million confirmed cases. It is clear that the promoters of the strikes, marches and blockades of the last month and a half have a great share of fault in this serious health crisis.
As can be seen, Latin America and the Caribbean are experiencing their most difficult moments throughout the pandemic. Only speeding up vaccination will stop the crisis. Although developed countries showed their willingness to donate a billion vaccines, all remains in promise.
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