Guatemala reports 37 more deaths due to covid-19 and accumulates 9,498 deaths in total

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Guatemalan health authorities reported on Monday 37 more deaths due to SARS-CoV-2, bringing the total number of deaths in the Central American country to 9,498 in almost 14 months of the pandemic.

The update of data on covid-19 by the Guatemalan Ministry of Health indicated that in addition to the 37 deaths, 522 new infections were detected, for a total of 302,534 positive cases of the coronavirus.

The 522 new infections were detected after 1,620 tests on Sunday, both in the public and private sectors, said the health ministry.

The country presided over by Alejandro Giammattei is in the midst of the fourth wave of the disease. During the last two weeks of June, 750 people died of the virus in one of the most lethal periods of the covid-19 in Guatemala.

On Saturday, several social organizations demanded the resignation of Giammattei for the handling of the pandemic and the lack of vaccines against the coronavirus.

The Convergence for Human Rights alliance, composed of 11 social organizations, issued a communiqué. It called for “the immediate resignation” of Giammattei and “the authorities of the Ministry of Health”.

With a population of 16.3 million inhabitants, Guatemala registers one of the worst vaccination rates against covid-19 in the American continent, according to official records and international organizations, since only 163,454 people have received double doses of immunization.

In addition, Guatemala is the Central American nation with the most deaths caused by the virus, followed by Honduras and Panama, which accumulate approximately 7,100 and 6,600 victims of the disease, respectively.

However, according to a study presented in March by the non-governmental organization Laboratorio de Datos, the number of deaths in Guatemala may be higher.

According to the NGO’s research, more than 15,000 people died from covid-19 in Guatemala between March 2020 and March 2021, based on data from the National Registry of Persons (Renap).

The difference between the data from the Ministry of Health and Renap is because Renap has greater coverage throughout Guatemala and is the institution in charge of registering births and deaths at the national level.

The first case of SARS-CoV-2 in Guatemala was detected on March 13, 2020, and the first death occurred two days later, on March 15.