PAHO has requested more vaccines for Latin America: it has vaccinated only 18% of its population

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) asked this Wednesday give more vaccines “urgently” to Latin America and the Caribbean, where covid-19 infections continue to rise and only 18% of the population is fully vaccinated.

The director of the association, Carissa Etienne, regretted during her weekly press conference that the continent has recently exceeded 2 million deaths from covid-19, which “roughly equates to the population of Houston” (Texas, United States).

While some countries have immunized half of their population or more, in Latin America and the Caribbean only 18% of the population is protected ” with the complete vaccination schedule, Etienne warned.

“Need more vaccines, through donations or direct purchases for our countries, and we need them nowHe urged.

I remembered that America is now the region of the world with the highest incidence of covid-19, with around 20,000 deaths and 1.2 million people infected last week, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Infections are “accelerating” in North America, with cases increasing in the southern and eastern United States, as well as in the United States. central mexico; while in In Central America, “Guatemala is experiencing a boom” in infections, Etienne explained.

In the Caribbean, cases continue to increase both in Cuba as in Martinique and the British Virgin Islands, while in South America, infections “decrease”, with the exception of some Brazilian states, he summed up.

The most contagious delta variant of the coronavirus has so far been detected in 22 countries of the Americas, including 10 in the Caribbean, said Etienne.

” We see Community transmission of the delta variant in Ecuador, Mexico and the United States’, precise. Etienne considered this trend “Worrisome” and assured that the continent “cannot afford to lower its guard” in the face of this phenomenon.

PAHO also welcomed on Wednesday the WHO’s request for a global moratorium on a third dose of vaccines, in order to have Vaccines sufficient to immunize at least 10% of the population of each country.

The Deputy Director of PAHO, Jarbas Barbosa, deemed “important” that vaccines are first given to countries with less vaccinated populations, in response to a question at the same press conference.

Barbosa felt that if more developed countries used their surplus vaccines to provide additional protection to those already immune, instead of giving them away, Not only would a “very complicated situation” be generated in terms of the global fight against the pandemic, but also in “moral and ethical” terms.

(With information from EFE)

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