Latin America is once again experiencing a rise in contagion for covid-19 where processions, meetings and events related to the Good Friday festival take place between virtuality and low presence in the middle of a second and third wave that threaten to further overflow health services.
While the world registers 129.2 million infections with a death toll of 2.8 million, America already reports 56.1 million infected while the death toll reaches 1.35 million, in the face of the imminent rise in infections that has penetrated the alarms in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil where record numbers have been broken in cases related to the virus.
Some governments have been forced to declare states of emergency – Ecuador this morning -, quarantine, closure of religious sites during the holidays or even the borders.
In the midst of this second Easter affected in the tourist and religious by the covid-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) expressed its concern about the weekly deaths that continue to rise.
“We have had six consecutive weeks of increased transmission in all regions, it is a worrying and serious trend. After a year of pandemic there is a lot of fatigue and societies want the pandemic to end, but we are not going in the right direction. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the WHO anti-life unit, said on Thursday.
BRAZIL AND CHILE BREAK RECORDS IN CONTACTS
Brazil, which continues to be the second most affected country by the virus in the world with 12.8 million cases and 325,284 deaths, has been accumulating several daily records in the number of deaths. The last one was last Wednesday with 3,869 deaths, a marked upward trend although in February it did not reach 2,000 daily deaths.
The country is entering the final stretch of Easter and with weekly average daily peaks breaking fateful records, despite gradual advances in vaccination and the most severe containment measures decreed by governors and mayors.
Chile, meanwhile, reached a million cases this Thursday with hospitals on the verge of collapse, 83% of the population confined and new variants becoming strong, which forced to close its borders throughout April.
In addition, this Friday, for the first time, it surpassed the barrier of 8,000 new cases per day, which has called into question the holding of the April 11 elections, while a successful vaccination process is taking place, with which more than 6.8 millions of people have received at least one dose (3.7 million both injections).
ECUADOR IN STATE OF EXCEPTION
Ecuador is under a state of emergency in eight of its 24 provinces with a rise in cases totaling 332,038; meanwhile, he expects the arrival next week of a million vaccines from the pharmaceutical company Sinovac.
Due to the increase in infections, which has already exceeded the installed capacity of some hospitals, especially in Quito and Guayaquil, the president, Lenin Moreno, declared a state of emergency due to public calamity and the measure, which will last 30 days, includes a curfew from 2 to 9 April.
For this reason, it was forbidden to hold all the events of influx and mass congregation in the eight provinces, such as the processions for Easter, which have taken place in the virtual field.
COLOMBIA REPLIES IN CASES
Colombian authorities again tightened restrictions on the population in the middle of Easter in the face of rising ICU employment, after adding another 11,449 infections this Thursday, the highest figure since January 28 when it was there are 12,270, at a time when the pandemic is erupting in almost all regions of the country with 2,417,826 cases.
To try to anticipate a third peak, Bogota, which celebrates the longest holiday bridge of the year, is preparing a hospital expansion plan for coronavirus-critical patients.
MEXICO AND ITS CROSSROADS
Mexico, which has more than 2.2 million cases and nearly 203,000 deaths, the third highest figure in the world, is preparing to live this Good Friday the most traditional and crowded viacrucis in Iztapalapa virtually due to restrictions due to the pandemic.
One of the representations of the Catholic world, which each year usually gathers about a million faithful, will have no audience. Despite this, in the east of the Mexican capital there are still people who deny the existence of the coronavirus despite being the most affected area of the country.
THE OTHER SIDE: DOCTORS AND VACCINES
This Easter there are several doctors who have died from covid-19 in Latin America. In Venezuela, the Brazilian mutation has caused the great wave of contagion to reach the Caribbean country, with the possibility of a hospital collapse and a record of 424 health workers who have lost their lives.
A survey conducted by the consulting firm Fine Research, conducted between March 9 and 10 on 2,451 doctors in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, indicates that 95% of them recommend vaccination against covid-19 in the their patients.
According to Diego Casaravilla, managing partner of the consultancy, one conclusion of the study is that “doctors rely on vaccines that they consider to be relatively safe” based on solid evidence and therefore massively recommend vaccination.
“Their confidence, however, declines to minimal levels when the reference is no longer to vaccines but to the vaccination process in countries implemented by health authorities,” due to the backlog in some countries.
They also estimate that approximately half of the population would be vaccinated by the end of 2021 and it would take about 20 months to control the pandemic.