Pablo Hernández Mare
"The trends we are seeing are clear: this year has been worse than last year across the region. In many places, there are more cases now than at any other time during the pandemic," said Dr. Carissa F. Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), in her opening remarks at the weekly briefing on June 9.
Dr. Etienne noted that nearly 1.2 million new cases of COVID-19 and more than 34,000 related deaths were reported in the Americas region last week.
According to the PAHO director, although many countries in the region have doubled or even tripled the number of hospital beds, "intensive care unit beds are full, oxygen is running out, and health workers are overwhelmed."
Despite the precarious situation in the region, Dr. Etienne warned that public health measures are being relaxed as if the numbers were decreasing, which is not the case. "Public health measures have never been more important than they are now," she emphasized.
The PAHO official emphasized that due to the slow pace of COVID-19 vaccination in Latin America and the Caribbean, controlling the virus could take years if current trends continue.
"Today we are seeing the emergence of two worlds: one that is rapidly returning to normal and another in which recovery remains in the distant future," said Dr. Etienne, who had already warned at the beginning of the year that 2021 could be much worse than 2020 .
Although vaccines will eventually help stop the spread of the virus, immunization progress in the region has been very uneven, as while the United States has fully vaccinated more than 40% of its population, some countries, such as Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, have only vaccinated 3%, and others like Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago and Honduras have not even reached 1%.
Dr. Etienne lamented that a few countries have stockpiled most of the vaccine supply , while most of the world waits for doses to arrive in dribs and drabs. [ 1 ]
"All countries need more doses, but the highest-risk countries, where vaccines have taken longer to arrive and where vulnerable people have not yet been protected, are the ones that urgently need more vaccines," warned Dr. Etienne.
The PAHO director welcomed the U.S. government's decision to donate 6 million doses to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean . "Spain has also made a generous donation of 5 million doses to Latin America and the Caribbean. And we are very grateful to Canada, which has pledged 50 million Canadian dollars to expand access to COVID-19 vaccines in the region. We hope that other countries, particularly those with surplus doses, and global financial institutions will follow suit to provide the support we need to protect the 70% of our population that will not be covered by the COVAX Facility."
Inequity in access exacerbated by 'discrimination' against some vaccines
Regarding the decision by countries like Spain to accept tourists who have been immunized with vaccines authorized by the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, PAHO's deputy director, pointed out that in the current situation worldwide, where there is limited access to vaccines, these regulations by countries can widen the inequality in access to biologicals between countries and within each country.
"The most important thing is to maintain surveillance and prevention measures for countries that are resuming tourism activities so that they can do so in a monitored manner and quickly identify infections," Dr. Barbosa recommended.
The specialist also pointed out that it is impossible to predict when the pandemic will end, and although many countries are doing everything they can to reduce the transmission of the virus, others are experiencing an increase in cases in recent months.
For her part, Dr. Etienne predicted that if the current trend in the management of the pandemic continues, social, economic and health disparities will increase in the Americas region, and it will be years before the virus is brought under control.
"If we work together we can limit the spread of COVID-19, we can move towards a more equitable world and fulfill our promise of achieving health for all," concluded the PAHO director.