Overseas Situation Report Friday 7th May 2021
“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says “I’m possible!” – Audrey Hepburn
As this is the end of the week, this report is focussing on the report from the WHO and it looks at how the situation In India is and what is happening in the Americas currently with regards to both infections and deaths due to the Covid-19 crisis.
For the second successive week, the number of Covid-19 cases globally remains at the highest levels since the beginning of the pandemic, with over 5.7 million new weekly cases, following nine consecutive weeks of increases. New deaths continue to increase for the seventh consecutive week, with over 93,000 counted. The South-East Asia Region continues to report marked increases in both case and death incidences. India accounts for over 90% of both cases and deaths in the region, as well as 46% of global cases and 25% of global deaths reported in the past week. Case incidence in the regions of Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, Africa and the Americas decreased, while rates in the Western Pacific Region were comparable to the previous week. The number of deaths decreased in Europe, Africa and the Western Pacific region, while slight increases were reported in the Americas and Eastern Mediterranean regions.
The highest numbers of new cases were reported from India (2,597,285 new cases; 20% increase), Brazil (421,933 new cases; 4% increase), the United States of America (345,692 new cases; 15% decrease), Turkey (257,992 new cases; 32% decrease), and France (163,666 new cases; 23% decrease).
In India which is currently the epicentre of the world’s biggest outbreak, the WHO is granting support operationally across Covid-19 response technical areas, through procurement to help meet the greatest demands and critical gaps. WHO is procuring laboratory supplies, including 1.2 million reagents, to meet the massive demand for testing.
For the demand on hospital beds and critical equipment, WHO is procuring mobile field hospitals with a capacity of maximum 50 beds to set up in the most affected areas. WHO is also chartering flights to deliver 4,000 oxygen concentrators to help meet increased demand of medical oxygen. Over 2,600 WHO technical staff working in various programmes such as polio tuberculosis and neglected tropical diseases have been repurposed to support the Covid-19 response in India with rapid situational analyses and the implementation of tailored responses.
With India being a country that manufactures vaccines as well as distributes, them it is imperative for the country and around the world that this supply chain continues.
With that in mind this week saw the news that the USA had committed to to support the temporary waiver of intellectual property on Covid-19 vaccines in a bold move to end the pandemic as quickly as possible.
WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, praised the commitment by the United States administration of President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris. “This is a monumental moment in the fight against Covid-19. The commitment by the President of the United States Joe Biden and Ambassador Katherine Tai, the US Trade Representative, to support the waiver of IP protections on vaccines is a powerful example of American leadership to address global health challenges,” said Dr Tedros.
“I commend the United States on its historic decision for vaccine equity and prioritizing the well-being of all people everywhere at a critical time. Now let’s all move together swiftly, in solidarity, building on the ingenuity and commitment of scientists who produced life-saving Covid-19 vaccines.”
On Wednesday, Ambassador Tai issued a statement saying the extraordinary circumstances caused by the Covid-19 pandemic required extraordinary measures to respond and that the waiving of intellectual property protections on vaccines was needed to help end the pandemic. The United States would, the statement continued, participate in World Trade Organization negotiations to support the temporary waiving of protections, and work with the private sector and other partners to expand vaccine manufacturing and distribution.
Whilst the world has focused on India, there is another grim statistic which has come out of the Americas this week.
Hospitalisations and deaths of younger people are surging as the Covid-19 pandemic accelerates across the Americas, said Carissa F. Etienne, Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
“Adults of all ages – including young people – are becoming seriously ill. Many of them are dying,” Dr. Etienne said during her weekly media briefing. In the past week, nearly 40% of all global Covid-19 deaths took place in the Americas.
“In Brazil, mortality rates have doubled among those younger than 39, quadrupled among those in their 40s and tripled for those in their 50s between December 2020 and March 2021,” she continued. “This is tragic, and the consequences are dire for our families, our societies and our future.”
She said that hospitalization rates of people under 39 rose by more than 70 percent in Chile during the past few months. In Brazil hospitalizations have been highest among people in their 40s. “In some areas of the U.S., more people in their 20s are now being hospitalized for Covid-19 than people in their 70s,” Dr. Etienne said.
“For much of the pandemic, our hospitals were filled with elderly Covid-19 patients, many of whom had pre-existing conditions that made them more susceptible to severe disease,” Dr. Etienne noted. “But look around intensive care units across our region today. You’ll see they’re filled not only with elderly patients, but also with younger people.”
Since healthy young people are more likely to survive, they may remain in hospitals for weeks, she said. As a result, countries must be prepared for surging hospital demand.
“If infections continue to rise at this rate, we expect that over the next three months, countries across our region will need to maintain and even increase their ICU bed capacity further,” she warned.
Countries should hire and train more health workers and specialized personnel, she said. Existing health workers should be supported “after operating in ‘crisis mode’ for so long,” she added.
“But we also can’t expand ICU capacity indefinitely. There are simply not enough health workers to hire and train in time. Which points us back to the best option: we must all recommit to a comprehensive response grounded in prevention and maintain health care for Covid-19 and other conditions,” Dr. Etienne said.
Today, more Latin American countries than ever before are reporting more than 1,000 Covid-19 cases a day.”
She reported that infections are increasing rapidly in the Guyanas and across Argentina and Colombia, “where weekly case counts are five times higher than they were this time last year.” In Central America, Guatemala is experiencing a significant increase in infections while Costa Rica is reporting record-high infections.
Puerto Rico and Cuba are driving infections in the Caribbean, although cases are also rising in many smaller islands. Nearly 70% of total Covid-19 cases in Anguilla have been reported in the last ten days. Following the eruption of the La Soufriere volcano, cases are rising in St. Vincent and the Grenadines among internally displaced people.
In total, more than 1.3 million people were infected with Covid-19 in the Americas in the last week and more than 36,000 died from Covid-related complications.
What this does tell us is that the Covid-19 pandemic is certainly a long way from being over and we must all be aware of the dangers and how easy it could return to the sort of numbers we say at the start of the year.
Until the next time Stay Safe.
Total number of cases worldwide – 156,726,037
Total number of deaths worldwide – 3,270,478
Total number of recovered cases worldwide – 134,123,437
Active cases – 19,332,122 (12.3% of Total Cases)
Closed cases – 137,393,915
Information and statistics from: