JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Tuesday, March 18, 2025

PAHO: COVID-19 cases dropping in countries with more vaccines

by

1335 days ago
20210721
Director of the Pan American Health Organization Dr Carissa F Etienne,

Director of the Pan American Health Organization Dr Carissa F Etienne,

PAHO/WHO

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

As COVID-19 in­fec­tions and deaths con­tin­ue to de­crease in the Amer­i­c­as, the Pan Amer­i­can Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion (PA­HO) says the in­equity of vac­cine ac­cess proves that vac­ci­na­tions are work­ing.

Dur­ing PA­HO’s week­ly COVID-19 brief­ing yes­ter­day, di­rec­tor Dr Caris­sa Eti­enne said last week’s da­ta had showed that in­fec­tion rates were de­creas­ing in coun­tries with high­er vac­cine cov­er­age, while in­creas­ing in coun­tries that had bare­ly vac­ci­nat­ed their pop­u­la­tions.

With re­ports that some coun­tries have vac­cines close to ex­piry, Eti­enne ap­pealed to them to do­nate to coun­tries in the re­gion. She said un­less all coun­tries are pro­tect­ed, the world will not be safe against COVID-19.

“We face a pan­dem­ic of the un­vac­ci­nat­ed, and the on­ly way to stop it is to ex­pand vac­ci­na­tions. Vac­cines are crit­i­cal, even if no vac­cine is 100 per cent ef­fec­tive. Just as im­por­tant are the pub­lic health mea­sures like phys­i­cal dis­tanc­ing, mask-wear­ing, avoid­ing crowds and al­so in­fec­tion con­trol mea­sures like test­ing, con­tact trac­ing, quar­an­tine and iso­la­tion,” Eti­enne said.

She said the Amer­i­c­as re­port­ed a slight de­crease in COVID-19 sta­tis­tics from the pre­vi­ous week, with over 967,000 new cas­es and 22,000 deaths. While the de­creas­ing trend seems good, Eti­enne said it shows a re­gion di­vid­ed by vac­cine ac­cess.

For ex­am­ple, in Cos­ta Ri­ca, where one in three peo­ple are vac­ci­nat­ed, there is a steady de­crease in COVID-19 cas­es. South Amer­i­can coun­tries like Uruguay, Chile and Ar­genti­na are al­so re­port­ing a steep de­cline in cas­es. The in­fec­tion rate in Cana­da and most of the USA are al­so drop­ping. How­ev­er, da­ta shows that USA states that are re­port­ing in­creas­es are those with low­er vac­ci­na­tion rates.

Eti­enne said this demon­strates the im­por­tance of vac­ci­na­tions in con­trol­ling the virus.

It is a con­trast­ing pic­ture in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean, where on­ly 15 per cent of the peo­ple are vac­ci­nat­ed. Low-in­come coun­tries like Hon­duras and Haiti, which re­cent­ly re­ceived do­na­tions from the USA, are yet to vac­ci­nate 1 per cent of their pop­u­la­tions, she said. 

Cas­es are al­so ac­cel­er­at­ing in most Cen­tral Amer­i­can coun­tries, with Guatemala re­port­ing high in­fec­tions and hos­pi­tal­i­sa­tions. In the Caribbean, cas­es are spik­ing in Cu­ba and Mar­tinique had a tripling.

Eti­enne said the da­ta clear­ly showed the need for more vac­cines now. She said the USA gov­ern­ment pledged to do­nate 12 mil­lion vac­cine dos­es to the Caribbean and Latin Amer­i­can coun­tries. So far, PA­HO has helped de­liv­er 4.5 mil­lion dos­es to El Sal­vador, Bo­livia, Hon­duras and Haiti.

PA­HO is al­so ex­pect­ing more do­na­tions from the USA and Cana­da. Spain pledged to de­liv­er 750,000 dos­es and France ex­pressed will­ing­ness to sup­port PA­HO’s ef­forts. Vac­cines are al­so reach­ing some coun­tries through bi­lat­er­al talks.

While com­mend­ing those coun­tries for shar­ing vac­cines to the re­gion, she said the re­al­i­ty is that it needs more. She said with­out vac­cines, there is a greater risk of more peo­ple falling sick and dy­ing.

So far, 47 coun­tries and ter­ri­to­ries in the Amer­i­c­as have de­tect­ed one vari­ant of con­cern, and 11 have all four - Al­pha, Be­ta, Gam­ma and Delta. Eti­enne warned that new vari­ants will emerge as long as the SARS/COV2 virus con­tin­ues to spread.

PA­HO as­sis­tant di­rec­tor Dr Jar­bas Bar­bosa said the CO­V­AX Fa­cil­i­ty, with the as­sis­tance of PA­HO’s Re­volv­ing Fund, de­liv­ered sev­en mil­lion dos­es to nine coun­tries in the re­gion and ex­pects to ship an­oth­er 3.7 mil­lion to oth­er coun­tries by late Ju­ly.

While there is still vac­cine hes­i­tan­cy, Dr Jairo Mén­dez, PA­HO re­gion­al ad­vi­sor on Vi­ral Dis­eases, said all the World Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion-ap­proved vac­cines are ef­fec­tive against COVID-19 vari­ants. He said while vac­cines are not 100 per cent ef­fec­tive, peo­ple should note their suc­cess in pre­vent­ing hos­pi­tal­i­sa­tions and deaths.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored