Latin America is trying to withstand the new wave of the coronavirus pandemic, which is already leaving about 600,000 deaths in the region, while awaiting vaccines for the COVAX mechanism, whose delivery has just been confirmed in more than 30 countries on the continent and could begin in mid-September.from this month.
“The start of COVAX vaccine administration is a hopeful step in the fight against this virus,” said Carissa F. Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), confirming notification to 36 countries and territories of the estimated number of AstraZeneca doses. which they could receive from the second half of February and throughout the second quarter of the year through this mechanism.
COVAX is a platform coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO / PAHO) to provide equitable access to covid-19 vaccines, which has been joined by approximately 190 countries around the world to have guaranteed initial doses covering at least 3% of the population in the early stages, eventually reaching 20%, enough to protect those most at risk.
Expected doses of COVAX
The GAVI Vaccine Alliance confirmed last week that approximately 280 million doses of vaccine vaccines will reach Latin America this year through the COVAX program.
Under this mechanism, the region has almost 30 countries or territories with the capacity to buy vaccines and 10 eligible to receive them as donations: Bolivia, Dominica, El Salvador, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Saint Lucia and Saint Lucia. Vincent and the Grenadines.
PAHO’s revolving fund has estimated in recent months that the vaccination of 20% of the Latin American and Caribbean population will require 273 million doses (with a two-application schedule at $ 10.55 each), which involves a projected cost of $ 2,714,200,000.
According to the PAHO announcement, the vaccine that will be delivered initially is that of the British AstraZeneca, which is still being analyzed by the WHO to receive approval for emergency use, which could appear in the coming days.
“At COVAX we now have a better idea of the timetable for approving the emergency use of the main products in its portfolio, including the main one (the vaccine) from AstraZeneca, which we hope will be available from February,” he said today. WHO Senior Adviser Bruce Aylward.
With this, it is estimated that in this first stage, approximately 35.3 million doses will reach America.
The number of vaccines was reported directly to each nation and, in the case of Nicaragua, a country eligible to receive them as a donation, the Government reported today that WHO has guaranteed the delivery of 504,000 doses in the short term.
PAHO stated that the countries and territories of the continent that have already received notification of delivery of COVAX vaccines are Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Ecuador and El Salvador.
Also Saint Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, British Virgin Islands, Jamaica, Mexico, Montserrat, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Latin America: 19 million cases and almost 600,000 deaths
The long-awaited announcement comes as some Latin American countries, which have reached direct agreements with production laboratories, are making progress in vaccination, in a region that remains among the most shaken by the pandemic.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Monday that the total number of cases worldwide amounted to 102.3 million and that of deaths to 2.2 million.
America, with 45.6 million cases and one million deaths, and Europe, with 34.2 million and 743,000 deaths, are the regions most affected by coronavirus in the world.
Meanwhile, the countries with the highest number of infections continue to be the United States (26.2 million cases), India (10.7 million), Brazil (9.2 million), the United Kingdom (3.84 million) and Russia (3.82 million), according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Meanwhile, in Latin America, after Brazil, the nations with the most infections are Colombia (2 million), Argentina (1.9 million) and Mexico (1.8 million).
With this, the continent adds over 45.6 million cases and one million deaths. And of that number, Latin America reports about 19 million infections and nearly 600,000 deaths.
January, a month of terrible records
Pending vaccines, the pandemic is not making a fuss on the continent and countries are beginning to record shocking rates of infections and deaths in the second month of 2021.
In the United States, which has more than 442,000 deaths from covid-19, the disease left a record 90,000 deaths in January, despite the fact that the number of cases has fallen somewhat recently.
January was also the month with the highest coronavirus mortality in Mexico, with at least 32,729 deaths caused by covid-19, despite President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s insistence that the pandemic had been “tamed.”
With an average of nearly 1,056 deaths a day, January exceeds 19,867 deaths in December, 18,919 in July and 17,839 in June, which were considered the worst months of the pandemic in Mexico, which is now the third country with the highest number of deaths. in the world (over 158,000), after the United States (442,000) and Brazil (over 224,500).
Cuba also reported 906 new positive diagnoses of covid-19 months, amid the worst wave of coronavirus in ten months, while health authorities predict that the infection curve will continue to rise in February.