COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the Americas, WHO warns | United States and Canada



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The United Nations health agency said the region recorded an average of 150,000 new cases of coronavirus a day last week, as the United States broke records.

COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the Americas, averaging 150,000 per day last week, the World Health Organization regional office said on Wednesday.

The United States continues to report record numbers, while parts of Canada and some states in Mexico, including the capital, are experiencing spikes, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said.

The United States has become the first country to surpass 10 million COVID-19 infections, according to a Reuters tally, as the third wave of the virus sweeps across the country.

Other countries in the Americas are doing better. Argentina, Costa Rica and Jamaica have curbed the outbreak with effective contact tracing, and most Caribbean countries have avoided the spikes by acting quickly, said Jarbas Barbosa, PAHO deputy director.

Europe has been a cautionary tale of the danger of a resurgence of the virus when restrictive measures are lifted too quickly, he said in a briefing.

Central America is seeing a steady decline in COVID-19 cases thanks to better control measures, the director of PAHO has said.

Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay have flattened their curves and cases in Argentina are declining due to better coordination between federal and provincial governments, he said.

Chile’s effective epidemic surveillance systems allowed it to bounce back from unprecedented peaks earlier this year, Barbosa said.

In Cuba and Costa Rica, universal health systems have ensured that the COVID-19 pandemic never gets out of hand, he said.



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