PAHO calls for more vaccines for Latin America, with only 18% of its population fully vaccinated

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) called on Wednesday (4) for “urgently” donating more vaccines to Latin America and the Caribbean, where Covid-19 infections continue to increase but only 18% of the population is fully vaccinated.

The agency’s director, Carissa Etienne, lamented during her weekly press conference that the continent has recently surpassed 2 million deaths from Covid-19, which is “roughly equivalent to the population of Houston” (Texas, USA).

“While some countries have immunized half of their population or more, in Latin America and the Caribbean, only 18% of the population is protected” with the full vaccination schedule, Etienne warned.

“We need more vaccines, through donations or direct purchases for our countries, and we need them now,” she urged.

She recalled that the Americas is now the region of the world with the highest incidence of Covid-19, with around 20,000 deaths and 1.2 million infected in the last week, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Infections are “accelerating” in North America, with increased cases in the southern and eastern United States and central Mexico, while in Central America, “Guatemala is registering a boom” in infections, Etienne explained.

In the Caribbean, cases continue to rise in Cuba and Martinique, and the British Virgin Islands, while in South America, infections “are falling”, except in some Brazilian states.

Etienne said that the more contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus has so far been detected in 22 countries in the Americas, including 10 in the Caribbean.

“We see community transmission of the Delta variant in Ecuador, Mexico, and the United States,” she said.

Etienne considered this trend “worrisome” and assured that the continent “could not afford to lower its guard” in the face of this phenomenon.

PAHO also welcomed the W.H.O.’s request for a global moratorium on the third dose of vaccines, so that there are enough vaccines to immunize at least 10% of the population in each country.

PAHO’s deputy director, Jarbas Barbosa, considered it “important” that vaccines be donated first to countries with less immunized populations.

Barbosa said that if the more developed countries use their surplus of vaccines to provide additional protection to those already immunized, instead of donating them, this would not only generate a “very complicated situation” in terms of the global fight against the pandemic but also in “moral and ethical” terms.