Latin America surpasses 1 million coronavirus deaths

MONTEVIDEO.- The coronavirus has killed more than a million people Latin America and the Caribbean, where vaccination is progressing at a pace too slow to stop the pandemic, unlike countries like the United States and Europe, which are already seeing a way out of the crisis.

Since the virus appeared in the region on February 26, 2020 in São Paulo until this Friday, 1,001,404 deaths and 31,586,075 infections were recorded, according to an AFP count. Almost 90% of the deaths are distributed between five countries which represent 70% of its population: Brazil (446,309 deaths), Mexico (221,080), Colombia (83,719), Argentina (73,391) and the Peru (67,253).

The director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Carissa Etienne, described the million dead as “a tragic step for all the inhabitants of the region”.

“This pandemic is far from over and it is hitting Latin America hard, affecting our health, our economies and our entire societies. However, only 3% of our populations have been vaccinated“The official denounced, urging countries with excessive doses to donate “a significant portion” to the Americas, where “they are desperately needed and will be used quickly.”

“Right now the situation is dire. We have never had something like this in our country, ”Jacil Farias, 82-year-old retiree in São Paulo, told AFP, describing the situation in Brazil, the second country most mourned by the pandemic in the world. world and which has the highest death rate on the continent.

Although the number of daily deaths has fallen by more than a third in six weeks – after surpassing 3,000 deaths in the first half of April -, Brazil continues to fight the virus as far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro is under investigation for his handling of the health crisis. “Our country is good, but our leaders are weak,” said Farias.

Mexico, the second most affected country on the continent, has seen an even steeper drop in the virus in recent months, since there are currently 230 deaths per day against more than 1,300 at the end of January.

As a sign of this improvement, classrooms will reopen in Mexico City from June 7, 14 months after the students are sent home. Two other Mexican states, which add several weeks of infection losses, have already opened their doors, and four more will do so before the end of May.

The situation is the opposite in Colombia, where the numbers are reaching unprecedented levels, with 490 deaths per day and where massive protests against the government are not running out of steam in the streets. As in other countries in the region, the virus has exacerbated poverty, inequality and violence.

In Argentina, which recorded 35,884 new infections and 435 deaths on Thursday, Alberto Fernández’s government imposed full containment for nine days as country “is going through worst moment of pandemic”. “People don’t take care of ourselves, none of us take care of ourselves and we want to go out and travel,” Alicia Sepúlveda, a resident of Buenos Aires, told AFP.

Uruguay, which was erected for most of 2020 as a model for handling the pandemic, hit its worst time in April and now appears to be leveling off at a still very high plateau. Over the past fourteen days, an average of 20.73 people have died per day, the highest per capita death toll in the world, ahead of Argentina (14.16) and Colombia (13.22).

“As long as the dead are not your dead, as long as it does not happen in your family, it is difficult” for the virus to be perceived as a real threat, Carla Romero, nursing assistant in a center, told AFP of intensive therapy in Montevideo.

An unequal fight

As the United States gradually returns to normalcy and Europeans increasingly lift restrictions through their vaccination campaigns, Latin America has only fully vaccinated 3% of its people, according to PAHO. Access to the vaccine and equipment needed to fight the pandemic reflects the economic divide between regions and will determine how and when countries emerge from the crisis.

In this context, Latin America has reason to be concerned, since only 4% of medical products used to respond to Covid-19 come from the region, which explains the shortage of personal protective equipment, oxygen , drugs and vaccines in Latin American countries, PAHO warned.

In countries like Argentina and Brazil, vaccination, and with it the hope of leaving behind the worst of the epidemic, is progressing slowly. Others, like the Chileans and Uruguayans, have achieved a high vaccination rate, similar to that of the richest countries.

Passing through the region, the virus not only sowed death, showing the shortcomings of local health systems, with overflowing hospitals and a shortage of equipment, but also hit fragile economies marked by inequality hard. No country has been spared the onslaught of the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus.

same Chile, previously considered one of the region’s most prosperous economies, suffered an economic contraction of 5.8% in 2020, its worst record in 40 years. More than a million people have lost their jobs, a situation which in extreme cases has led many to settle in camps, one of the most visible faces of poverty. “The hardest part was hunger,” Ingrid Lara told AFP in one of these camps in Santiago.

Since the discovery of the virus in December 2019 in China, Latin America and the Caribbean is the second region in the world with the most deaths, behind Europe (1,119,433 deaths) and ahead of the United States and Canada (614,248 deaths ).

The million deaths in the region represent just under 30% of the 3.4 million deaths officially recorded by Covid-19 worldwide.

Agencia AFP

THE NATION