MIAMI (AP) – Although the majority of the population of the American continent is already vaccinated against the coronavirus, there are six countries in the region – including Haiti and Guatemala – that would not reach the goal of 40% of its inhabitants immunized in 2021 set by the World Health Organization.
This was stated by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the body in charge of public health policies at the regional level, detailing the situation of the pandemic in its weekly virtual press conference from its headquarters in Washington, in the It warned that it was particularly concerned about the situation in Haiti.
“At the current rate, it is possible that up to six countries will not meet the 40% goal by the end of the year,” said PAHO Director Carissa Etienne. His colleague Jarbas Barbosa, deputy director of the organization, said that it concerns Guatemala, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia and Grenada.
For months, the Americas were the global epicenter of the pandemic and one of the regions hardest hit by the lack of access to vaccines, the vast majority monopolized by the more developed countries with more resources.
In the last week, cases have accelerated again in Canada and parts of Mexico, in North America, while in Central America there has been a decline, with the exception of Panama. South America, meanwhile, has seen increases in Bolivia, Peru and Colombia, while the number of patients has decreased in Ecuador, Chile and Argentina.
In total, across the continent there were more than 782,600 cases of COVID-19 in the last week and 10,950 deaths. Although the omicron variant has been detected in several countries in the region – including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico, and the United States – PAHO stressed that attention should still be focused on the delta variant, which is the predominant one.
So far PAHO has delivered some 72 million vaccines throughout the region, 1.6 million this week. 55% of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean is already fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and although there are still 20 countries that have not yet reached 40% of vaccination, Etienne said they expect them to reach the goal in the next weeks, with the exception of the six that include Haiti and Guatemala.
In Haiti, a country with more than 11 million inhabitants, less than 0.6% of the population has completed vaccination, according to PAHO. Authorities have reported that the positivity rate for the virus is between 12% and 23%, depending on the area.
In Guatemala, less than 23% of people have completed their vaccination, according to PAHO. In the Central American nation, one of the main reasons for the lack of vaccination is the lack of access to doses and the apathy of a part of the population, especially in rural areas. The government also bought some 8 million Russian Sputnik V vaccines in April, but has only received 4.8 million.
“The most worrying situation is that of Haiti, due to the whole situation of the political crisis, the earthquake, everything that has happened in the country,” said Barbosa.
He warned, however, that the pandemic has not yet been controlled anywhere, not even in cities like Sao Paulo, Brazil, where about 100% of adults are already fully vaccinated. Other cities that could be in the same situation, he said, are Montevideo and Santiago, whose countries – Uruguay and Chile, respectively – have one of the highest vaccination rates in the entire region.
The state of Sao Paulo, which has a population of 46 million, roughly the same as Argentina’s, recorded fewer than 1,000 hospitalized for COVID-19 earlier this week.
In Chile, 90% of the population has the complete scheme and 60% already have the booster dose. In Greater Santiago, with eight million inhabitants, 84% are vaccinated and 59% have the booster dose.
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The AP journalist Mauricio Savarese, from Sao Paulo, Eva Vergara, from Santiago; Dánica Coto from San Juan; and Sonia Pérez D. from Guatemala City, contributed to this note.
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