While COVID-19 deaths and infections in the Americas region over the past week are at the lowest levels since the pandemic began two years ago, the World Health Organization’s regional arm warned Wednesday that countries should not think the pandemic is over.
COVID-19 remains a threat in Latin America and the Caribbean, where some countries are still struggling against vaccine hesitancy, falsehoods and other misinformation to boost vaccination rates, Pan American Health Organization officials said.
“This is not the time to lower our guard,” said Dr. Ciro Ugarte, the director of Health Emergencies for PAHO. “There are still millions of cases and tens of deaths per week.”
PAHO’s warning comes as Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay join some European countries in dropping mandatory use of face masks and a federal judge in Florida on Monday voided the federal mask mandate for airplanes and other modes of public transportation.
Across the Caribbean, countries such as Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba have also eased COVID-19 testing requirements for travelers.
Last week, the Americas region, which also includes the U.S., Mexico and Canada, reported more than 490,527 COVID cases — nearly a 2.3% decrease compared to the prior week, Dr. Carissa Etienne, PAHO’s director, said Wednesday during her regular press briefing with regional journalists on the state of the pandemic. A total of 4,797 deaths were also recorded, representing a 15.2% decrease compared with the previous week.
As proof that the virus remains present and a public health threat, Etienne noted that in North America, COVID-19 infections increased by 11.2%. In Canada hospitalizations rose by more than 20% as the proportion of omicron BA.2 variant cases grew in the country.
“As borders have reopened and tourism has ramped up, cases have also surged in some Caribbean countries and territories, with Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Barbados, and Saint Martin recording the largest relative increases,” Etienne said. “We are still in a public health emergency of international concern and the experts advise that countries should be prepared to quickly scale up public health and social measures rapidly if the rates of hospitalizations and deaths start increasing again.”
Acknowledging that public health decisions related to the pandemic are the purview of individual countries, Etienne urged governments across the region to increase vaccination rates, and to use the upcoming Vaccination Week in the Americas, which runs April 23-30, to try to reach 70% vaccination of their population.
The June 30 goal, set by the World Health Organization, so far has been achieved by only 14 countries in the region, while eight countries and territories have already vaccinated more than 60% of their populations.
“In some areas, vaccination has slowed or plateaued,” Etienne said. “In the Caribbean, fewer than 30% of the population completed their primary series in Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and St. Lucia. And across Latin America, Guatemala, Guyana and Paraguay have yet to reach half of their populations.”
She also added another warning: In some countries, COVID has become the No. 1 cause of death among pregnant women.
“These deaths are avoidable. And the best way to do so is to expand vaccination coverage in pregnant women at any stage of their pregnancy,” she said.
PAHO has helped get 1.77 billion vaccines injected across the region in only 16 months, Etienne said, so a shortage of vaccine is not the problem today. The challenge, she said, is expanding the coverage and getting more people vaccinated.
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