Overseas Situation Report Friday 16th July 2021
By Mike Evans
“Life has its ups and downs. When you are up, enjoy the scenery. When you are down, touch the soul of your being and feel the beauty.” – Debasish Mridha
This latest overseas report is focusing on the Area of Central America, the Caribbean and, to some extent, the northern part of South America, and is looking in the main at the smaller nations and how the pandemic has impacted them.
In the past week, new Covid-19 cases spiked in Central America, the Caribbean and some South America countries, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Carissa F. Etienne reported.
“Cases rise when complacency sets in,” she warned during a press briefing. “We are all tired, but after experiencing successive peaks of infections in the same locations, we must break this cycle by embracing public health measures early and consistently.”
Cases are increasing in Central American countries, including El Salvador and Guatemala, where Covid-19 deaths have also surged. In Mexico, new cases increased week on week by 49% and deaths by 14%. New infections are spiking in the Caribbean, where Cuba has reported the highest number of weekly cases since the start of the pandemic. They saw 42,034 new cases in the past week, compared to 23,584 in the previous week, a rise of 72%. More worrying was the fact that deaths in the week more than doubled to 256, a rise of 110% compared to the previous week.
In the British Virgin Islands, cases have tripled in the weeks after reopening to cruise ships and in a number of other islands which are now open to the larger US cruise ships.
In Barbados, new infections in the week increased fourfold, which led the government to re-impose a six-hour curfew from Tuesday night in a bid to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. The island recorded 10 new cases of the virus as other Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries registered deaths and new cases of the disease.
Health authorities in the country said that three females and seven males are the latest people to be diagnosed with Covid-19 from 1,086 tests conducted on Monday.
It said that the number of people in isolation is 104. A total of 4,196 confirmed cases of Covid-19 (2,028 females and 2,168 males) have been recorded since March 2020, and 48 people have died from the virus. To date, the authorities have carried out 195,982 tests.
There have also been significant increases in Aruba, Curacao, Saint Martin and The Cayman Islands.
But creating a “mixed picture” of the virus’s trajectory, new Covid-19 infections declined overall by nearly 20% in the Americas last week, as the pandemic eased in much of South America. “Covid infections, hospitalisations and deaths are dropping across most of the continent, including in Brazil, Peru, Uruguay, and Chile,” Dr. Etienne said.
“When variants of concern circulate,” she continued, “it’s even more important that countries step up surveillance, especially while vaccine coverage remains low.”
In total, the Americas has reported nearly 74 million Covid-19 cases and 1.9 million deaths – more than a third of Covid cases and more than 40% of deaths reported globally. If you couple the Big Nations of US and Canada with these Central American and Caribbean countries, we find that in the past week there has been a 50% increase in confirmed new cases compared to the previous week and an 11% increase in deaths.
Dr. Etienne also warned that the pandemic is creating serious social and economic impacts.
“Covid-19 has not just ravaged our health systems, it has fractured social protection programs and destabilized our economies,” she said, drawing attention to a new study from the Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). The study reported that more than 7 million companies have closed amid the pandemic.
“We urge countries to continue prioritizing health and social safety nets as part of their Covid response and as they turn their sights to Covid recovery,” she added. Dr Etienne expressed particular concern about Haiti following the assassination of the country’s President last week and, where “thousands of people” have been displaced by violence and instability and “crowded shelters could become active hot spots for Covid transmission.”
“PAHO, along with other partners, is committed to supporting the Haitian people in these uncertain times and urges other international organizations to join us in supporting the Covid response,” she said.
In recent weeks, PAHO has delivered personal protective equipment to Haiti, helped expand care for Covid-19 patients, and provided thousands of tests and laboratory materials. PAHO has also helped train community health workers and supported the Ministry of Health in preparing for vaccine introduction and setting up new systems to dispel rumours. Vaccines continue to be inaccessible for many in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Money, more than public health, has determined how quickly countries can secure the tools they need to combat this virus,” Dr. Etienne said. “As countries that struck deals with vaccine manufacturers pull further ahead, vaccination coverage continues to linger in the single digits for much of our region.”
While 58% of Chile’s population are fully protected against Covid and in Uruguay 55% are protected, Paraguay and Jamaica have fully vaccinated less than 3% of their populations. Honduras and Guatemala have yet to vaccinate 1% of their populations.
Calling attention to the U.S government’s donation of nearly 12 million vaccine doses to countries in the Americas, Dr. Etienne said that more are on their way with PAHO’s help.
“These vaccines are bringing hope to countries that would otherwise have to wait months to secure even a fraction of these doses,” she said. “That’s why we continue to urge donors and countries with vaccines to share them with our region. This remains the only way for many countries in our region to secure the doses they need, quickly.”
Across South America there has been a significant drop in new cases over the past week by 17%. Deaths are also in decline and week on week have shown a decline of 13%. Columbia, Chile and Uruguay have shown large reductions in the past week as they have in deaths.
So, a rather mixed picture of this area and it does push home to everyone who reads through this report, that the pandemic is by no means finished and we must be ever vigilant and make sure we continue to follow the protocols to remain as safe from the virus as we can be.
Until the next time, Stay Safe.
Total Cases Worldwide – 189,750,213
Total Deaths Worldwide – 4,083,260
Total Recovered Worldwide – 173,166,211
Total Active Cases Worldwide – 12,500,742 (6.6% of the total cases)
Total Closed Cases Worldwide – 177,249,471
Information and resources:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://reliefweb.int/report/world/new-covid-19-cases-spike-many-countries-americas
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/weekly-trends/#countries