A new Covid-19 surge drags all over Latin America

Cases are rising rapidly in Colombia, Peru, Argentina and Chile, and even in Uruguay and Paraguay, two nations that had escaped relatively unscathed from the pandemic.

Uruguay, which had only about ten infections a day at the end of September, recorded more than 500 a day last week. President Luis Lacalle Pou said the country would close borders to visitors during the holiday season and limit crowds and some public transportation. “The second wave in the world is our first wave,” he said.

Paraguay has released nearly 1,200 new cases a day in December compared to August 150, according to officials who have already overwhelmed the nation’s poor, landlocked hospitals. Health Minister Julio Mazzoleni said the country is entering “a very difficult new stage of the pandemic”.

The colder climate in the northern hemisphere is partly to blame for the increase in cases in Mexico by forcing more people inland. But the most important factor in the whole region seems to be fatigue with measures of social distancing. In Brazil, people gather more and more on the beach and at parties during the summer in the southern hemisphere.

“People have completely lowered their guard: they plan parties, travel and will pay the price,” said Eliseu Waldman, an epidemiologist at the University of São Paulo.

Latin America, with 8% of the world’s population, has accounted for about a third of the world’s deaths from Covid-19. Brazil has recorded more than 184,000 deaths, according to the US 312,000.

The true toll of the pandemic, including people who died due to Covid-19, but who were not included in the official tolls of the countries, is much higher. The three countries with the highest excess of mortality this year — the number of people killed compared to previous years — are in Latin America: Peru, Ecuador, and Mexico.

In a sharp change from previous months, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has urged Mexicans to stay home for the next 10 days as the Christmas holidays approach. His government is rushing to help the capital increase hospital capacity.

Mexico City’s public hospitals occupied 80% as of Thursday, the highest pandemic rate, according to data from the Ministry of Health.

“I felt like the beds were running out, so we decided to come. But it seems too late, “said 42-year-old Adela Rayon, who took her 70-year-old father Alfredo to Mexico City General Hospital, one of the largest in Latin America. which was set aside.He fought the tears as he spoke.

Many health workers are preparing for what they say will be the saddest Christmas. “This feels like an endless nightmare,” said Javier Hernandez, an emergency physician at Hospital 72 of Mexico’s national health service.

The mayor of Cali, Colombia, where 90% of hospital beds are occupied, this week implemented a red alert order that includes a curfew and restrictions on the sale of alcohol from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The port and resort of Cartagena, Colombia, has banned sailors from disembarking their boats, banned sunbathing or swimming on Caribbean beaches, and closed all nightclubs until mid-January.

Claudia Lopez, mayor of Bogotá, asks citizens to keep their family reunions virtual this year. “If you’re thinking about a family reunion, let it be just your nuclear family,” he said.

In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, intensive care beds for Covid-19 patients in public hospitals have a capacity of 92%, according to municipal officials. Although the average of seven days of deaths from Brazil to Brazil (Thursday at 723), according to Our World in Data, is still below the high of 1,097 at the end of July, cases and deaths are on the rise.

Although many countries in the region have requested vaccines, there is a lack of a comprehensive vaccination campaign for many months. Some countries like Mexico do not expect to have most people vaccinated until late 2021 or early 2022.

Many younger Brazilians, frustrated after months of confinement and confident they will not end up in hospital beds, are breaking government guidelines and returning to bars and parties. Although cities have tried to impose new restrictions, with São Paulo banning establishments from consuming alcohol from 8pm, many bars have also breached these rules after narrowly escaping bankruptcy during previous closures. .

“People no longer care about anything,” said Chi Yen Chang, a 33-year-old student from São Paulo, who said 12 of his twenty-thirty-year-old friends were planning a hedonistic trip to Rio on the night of New Year’s Eve. While the city has canceled official events, partygoers have organized their own gatherings through social media.

In Peru, another country hard hit by the pandemic, the focal point of new infections right now is Piura, a northern coastal state with popular beach resorts that typically attract tourists during the holidays. The positivity rate of Covid-19 tests in some municipalities ranges close to 100%, in part due to limited testing, according to state government data.

The intensive care unit at Cayetano Heredia Hospital in Piura, which was overwhelmed when the pandemic hit Peru in March, is once again full, said Dr. Walter Cruz, an emergency physician. “There’s a big upturn, we’re really at the beginning of a second wave,” he said.

—Ryan Dube in Lima, Peru, and Kejal Vyas in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this article.

Write to Juan Montes to [email protected] and Samantha Pearson to [email protected]