The Americas, now in intensive care due to new wave from Brazil to Colombia or Ecuador

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In the midst of the intense vaccination campaigns imposed by the different governments in the American countries, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Paraguay end this Friday a week with peaks and emergency measures to get out of the intensive care to which the latest data on infections and deaths due to covid-19 have led them.

This is not a phenomenon exclusive to the continent. The World Health Organization (W.H.O.), led by its director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned Friday that the covid-19 pandemic is on track to reach the highest peak of infections recorded unless the curve bends quickly.

“The number of weekly cases has almost doubled in the last two months, and this means we are approaching the highest level of infections we have seen so far in the pandemic,” he commented at a press conference.

IN BRAZIL, THE SECOND WAVE IS RAGING AMONG THOSE UNDER 40 YEARS OF AGE

In the South American giant, a country that is experiencing a second wave more virulent and lethal than the first, with an average of 3,000 deaths per day, for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, people under 40 years of age are in the majority among patients admitted to Intensive Care Units (ICU).

Data from the Brazilian Association of Intensive Care Medicine (AMIB) show that young people accounted for 52.2% of intensive care patients in March, a jump of 16.5% compared to the period between September and November last year and a record number for this age group.

Despite the crisis, the government of Sao Paulo, the state hardest hit in the country by the coronavirus, announced the reopening, with limitations, of businesses and churches as of Sunday.

The São Paulo authorities justified the relaxation of the restrictions, in force since March 6, based on a slight decrease in hospital admissions due to Covid-19.

COLOMBIA CLOSES ITS MAIN CITIES

The virulence of the third wave of Covid-19, which triggered contagions and deaths in the country several weeks ago, forced Bogotá and Medellín, the two largest cities in the country, to impose new quarantines opposed by sectors hard hit by the confinements, such as commerce.

New total confinement began today and will last through the weekend in the two regions hardest hit by the health emergency, as well as in the Caribbean department of Atlántico and at least 40 municipalities of Valle del Cauca (southwest), areas on high alert due to the high occupancy of intensive care units (ICU).

Infections and deaths in Colombia have tripled in the last week, exceeding 16,000 per day, figures that the country has not recorded for more than two months, when the second peak of the pandemic put hospital networks at the limit.

ECUADOR WITH SATURATED HOSPITALS AND PARAGUAY ON THE BRINK

In Ecuador, saturated hospitals, exhausted doctors, and a slow vaccination process mark the fight against Covid-19. In the Andean country, official figures speak of more than 355,000 infected, although doctors consider a high underreporting because not all the population has access to PCR tests.

In Paraguay, the Director of Health Surveillance, Guillermo Sequera, predicted that the country would reach 100 deaths per day with the current rate of coronavirus infections and warned that “the situation is critical”.

The number of cases continues to be at a “high plateau”, which began at the end of February and tripled to 14,000 per week, a figure which is also expected to close this week, according to the data handled by the Ministry of Health to date.

CANADA SETS ALARM BELLS RINGING

Canadian authorities also expressed concern about the evolution of the pandemic after the country set two consecutive records this week in the daily records of infections.

“Canada continues to face a dire situation with this third wave. Cases are rising rapidly. In many places, the numbers are higher than ever, and too many hospitals are stretched to the limit,” warned Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

U.S. EARMARKS $1.7 BILLION TO COMBAT VIRAL MUTATIONS

In the United States, which today surpassed 202 million doses of vaccines administered, the government of President Joe Biden announced an investment of 1.7 billion dollars for the detection, monitoring, and mitigation of mutations of the SARS-COV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19.

This decision was made in part because contagions and deaths from coronaviruses have accelerated in recent days, especially in the Midwest, due on the one hand to the increased threat posed by the new variants, especially the British one, but also to the relaxation of restrictive measures in some areas.

Similarly, the company Johnson & Johnson (J&J) privately asked the pharmaceutical companies that have also developed a vaccine against Covid-19 to work together to study the risks of blood clots and speak with one voice on the safety of the drug, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Friday.

For its part, Mexico announced, more than a year after the closure of schools due to the covid-19 pandemic, an accelerated vaccination plan for its 3 million teachers to reopen schools between May and June.

Likewise, the Peruvian government kicked off its new vaccination plan. It expects to vaccinate all its people over 80 years of age before August and to make progress in vaccinating those over 65 years of age, which total more than 4.3 million people.