Caris­sa F. Eti­enne, Di­rec­tor of the Pan Amer­i­can Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion (PA­HO) em­pha­sizes that the COVID-19 virus is neg­a­tive­ly af­fect­ing the health of young chil­dren and teenagers across na­tions, and ad­vo­cates for swift and ef­fec­tive ac­tions to be tak­en. De­tails fol­low in this press re­lease.

Pan Amer­i­can Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion (PA­HO) Di­rec­tor Caris­sa F. Eti­enne said to­day that COVID-19 has se­vere­ly im­pact­ed the men­tal and phys­i­cal health of chil­dren and ado­les­cents in the Amer­i­c­as. She urged coun­tries to take sev­er­al spe­cif­ic mea­sures to pro­tect them, in­clud­ing safe re­open­ing of schools.

Dr. Eti­enne said over 1.5 mil­lion cas­es were re­port­ed in the re­gion last year, while more than 1.9 mil­lion have al­ready been re­port­ed in the first nine months of this year. While chil­dren and young peo­ple gen­er­al­ly ex­pe­ri­ence mild or no symp­toms, they can al­so de­vel­op se­vere ill­ness.

“As more adults re­ceive their COVID-19 vac­cines, chil­dren – who are not yet el­i­gi­ble for vac­ci­na­tions in most coun­tries – are rep­re­sent­ing a larg­er per­cent­age of COVID hos­pi­tal­iza­tions and even deaths,” Dr. Eti­enne said in a me­dia brief­ing. “So, let’s be clear: chil­dren and young peo­ple al­so face a sig­nif­i­cant risk of dis­ease from COVID-19.”

But, in ad­di­tion, an ar­ray of sec­ondary im­pacts are hit­ting chil­dren and ado­les­cents par­tic­u­lar­ly hard, the PA­HO Di­rec­tor de­tailed. “The virus in­di­rect­ly has con­se­quences and is hin­der­ing their growth and de­vel­op­ment, and jeop­ar­diz­ing their chances at a bright fu­ture,” she warned. 

Dr. Eti­enne em­pha­sized the neg­a­tive im­pact of not at­tend­ing school in per­son. “With each day that chil­dren go with­out in-per­son school­ing, the high­er the like­li­hood that they drop out and nev­er re­turn to school,” she said. “For some of the most vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren – par­tic­u­lar­ly for our girls – this can have last­ing con­se­quences.”    

“Ex­perts agree that the pan­dem­ic has trig­gered the worst ed­u­ca­tion­al cri­sis we have ever seen in the re­gion,” Dr. Eti­enne con­tin­ued. She urged coun­tries to fo­cus on restor­ing health, ed­u­ca­tion, and so­cial ser­vices for school-age pop­u­la­tions.

Chil­dren and ado­les­cents are al­so miss­ing an­nu­al check-ups and rou­tine vac­ci­na­tions due to wide­spread dis­rup­tions to health sys­tems. “Half of young peo­ple have ex­pe­ri­enced in­creased stress or anx­i­ety dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, yet men­tal health ser­vices and sup­port re­main out of reach for many,” she said.

Sex­u­al and re­pro­duc­tive health ser­vices have been dis­rupt­ed in more than half of coun­tries in the re­gion, and lock­downs and eco­nom­ic dis­rup­tions have in­creased the risk of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence that can make home un­safe for chil­dren and ado­les­cents.

To re­duce neg­a­tive im­pacts on young peo­ple, coun­tries should do “every­thing they can to safe­ly re­open schools,” Dr. Eti­enne ad­vised.  Not­ing that “there is no ze­ro-risk sce­nario,” she said na­tion­al and lo­cal au­thor­i­ties should de­cide when to open or close schools, de­pend­ing on lo­cal epi­demi­o­log­i­cal con­di­tions and ca­pac­i­ty to re­spond. PA­HO has de­vel­oped de­tailed guide­lines for safe re­open­ing, in­clud­ing en­sur­ing prop­er ven­ti­la­tion and san­i­tary con­di­tions.

Chil­dren and ado­les­cents should prac­tice the proven pub­lic health mea­sures: phys­i­cal dis­tanc­ing, wash­ing hands of­ten, wear­ing masks in pub­lic, and avoid­ing crowd­ed places. And they should al­so get test­ed if they de­vel­op symp­toms or sus­pect they’re sick.

And coun­tries should de­vel­op com­mu­ni­ca­tions cam­paigns tai­lored for chil­dren and ado­les­cents to en­sure that they un­der­stand their risk of in­fec­tion and abil­i­ty to trans­mit COVID-19. “Too many chil­dren and young peo­ple still don’t think they’re at risk,” Dr. Eti­enne said.

Turn­ing to her epi­demi­o­log­i­cal up­date, Dr. Eti­enne re­port­ed that in­fec­tions have in­creased by 20 per­cent in the Amer­i­c­as in the past week even as they are de­clin­ing or plateau­ing in many oth­er parts of the world. Cas­es have risen by a third in North Amer­i­ca due to in­creas­es in the U.S. and Cana­da. The U.S. is re­port­ing more than 100,000 new dai­ly in­fec­tions for the first time since Jan­u­ary.

In­fec­tions are ris­ing in Cos­ta Ri­ca, Guatemala and Be­lize, and many hos­pi­tals are “com­plete­ly sat­u­rat­ed” with COVID-19 pa­tients, Dr. Eti­enne said. 

In­fec­tions gen­er­al­ly have slowed in the Caribbean. How­ev­er, Grena­da, Bar­ba­dos and Bermu­da are re­port­ing sharp in­creas­es, and Ja­maica ex­pe­ri­enced its high­est week­ly in­fec­tions since the be­gin­ning of the pan­dem­ic. Mean­while, most South Amer­i­can coun­tries con­tin­ue to re­port de­clines in in­fec­tions and deaths.  

In to­tal, 1.4 mil­lion cas­es and 23,300 COVID-re­lat­ed deaths were re­port­ed in the Amer­i­c­as in the past week.