Over half of last week’s global COVID deaths recorded in Americas: PAHO

COVID-19 infections continue to rise in the Americas, the director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) announced on Wednesday, with more than 1.3 million new cases recorded in the past week and more than 37,000 thousands of deaths.

During PAHO's weekly news conference, the organization's director, Carissa Etienne, said that some nations in the region see an increase in cases, while others are viewing a decrease, but the region as a whole is still strongly affected by the pandemic.

"More than half of the global deaths reported in the past week were in the Americas - a sober warning of the human toll of this pandemic," Etienne replied.

"Over the past week, the United States, Brazil and Argentina have been among the ten countries in the world that have registered the newest infections worldwide," she stated.

According to Johns Hopkins University, the US and Brazil are the world leaders in coronavirus deaths. More than 556,000 people die from COVID-19 in the US, and in Brazil, more than 336,000 died.

Etienne said that South America is the most worrying region in the Americas, where cases are increasing in almost every country. According to her, business in Bolivia and Colombia has doubled in the past week.

She stated that so far, more than 210 million COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in 49 countries and regions in the region, and 2.8 million vaccines by the COVAX mechanism to 26 countries.

COVAX is an initiative led by Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, with its allies, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to grant access to coronavirus vaccines fairly around the world. The work of the mechanism is essential for the poorest countries in the region, such as Haiti, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

However, vaccination rates vary widely across the region. While Chile has been vaccinated with more than 37 percent of the population, according to Our World in Data, other countries such as Guatemala and Honduras have vaccinated less than 1 percent of their population.

The most populous nations in the region, such as Brazil and Mexico, have also struggled to obtain vaccines amid global demand and limited supplies.