America’s worrying pandemic forecast: outbreaks until the end of 2022

Despite advances in vaccination, AArgentina and several American countries will be having suffering reshoots VSovid-19 “until 2022”, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warned on Wednesday: “The course of the pandemic VSovid-19 in the Americas remains very uncertain”, Says a report from the regional office of the World Health Organization (WHO).

PAHO has viewed the increase in coronavirus cases in South and Central America in the first half of 2021 as “worrying”, sounding the alarm over inequalities in access to the anticovid vaccine in Latin America and the Caribbean, and said that the population applying it could “slow down” vaccination even further, or prevent it from happening altogether.

In this context, “One possible scenario is that, well into 2022, countries in the Americas will still face localized epidemics of VSovid-19, mainly in institutions (eg nursing homes, prisons), areas around densely populated cities and rural areas, ”the report warned.

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When submitting the report, PAHO’s Director of Health Emergencies, Ciro Ugarte, stressed that public health measures that have been shown to be effective in curbing the spread of the virus must be maintained. “The region could experience recurrent epidemic waves of epidemics. And periods of low-level transmission require national leadership and commitment from across government and across society to maintain a consistent and robust response, ”he said.

Since the detection of the first case in the Americas in January 2020 to date, the region has nearly 88.5 million confirmed infections, including 2.1 million deaths, according to official figures. Just over half of those cases and deaths were reported in the first half of 2021, with the highest number of infections and deaths recorded in January this year.

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Until August 24, 39% of cases and 47% of deaths from covid-19 worldwide were reported in this continent, and four American countries – Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and the United States – were then among the ten countries that reported the highest number of cumulative cases in the world. In contrast, five countries – Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and the United States – were among the top ten in terms of cumulative deaths globally.

“I urge everyone to invest in our health systems and ensure their rapid transformation so that they have the capacity to meet the needs of all, every day and to better respond to pandemics and other disasters,” said the Director of PAHO, Carissa Etienne, in his opening address to the 59th Governing Council of the Organization.

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