BRAZIL (Reuters) – More than 1 million people have died from COVID-19 in North and South America, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Wednesday.
In the last week alone, another 2 million cases have been reported in America, with the United States being the main driver of the outbreak, the WHO regional branch said. Globally, there have been more than 100 million cases and 2.1 million deaths, with 44 million cases in North and South America, according to a Reuters report.
Across North America, there is growing pressure on hospital capacity, and in some US states nearly 80 percent of ICU beds are used to treat COVID-19 patients, PAHO Chief Carissa Etienne said in a virtual briefing.
The rate is similar in many states in Mexico, where the number of cases is tripling in some regions, she warned.
The situation of the hospital in Brazil is particularly worrying, with three-quarters of the ICU beds occupied in many Brazilian states, she said.
In Manaus, many patients are waiting for hospital beds to collapse under the strain of a second wave of coronavirus infections complicated by a new variant of the virus detected there.
Variants that have occurred in or outside the region have been detected in 14 countries in North and South America, OPS said.
Only a few cases of British and South African mutations have been found, mainly in travelers, and do not appear to be spreading in the region, according to OPS, but there is the Amazon version that appeared in the Brazilian city of Manaus. to have a high transmission rate.
PAHO expects to begin implementing COVID-19 vaccines made available to poorer countries in March through the UN-run COVAX facility, with approximately 164 million doses.
The COVAX facility is expected to deliver 2 billion doses worldwide.
Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Edited by Lisa Shumaker