COVID situation in 2021 worse than 2020 – PAHO Director

Director of the Pan American Health Organisation, Dr Carissa F Etienne has regarded 2021 as “undoubtedly worse” than 2020, as it relates to the continued COVID-19 crisis.
In her last briefing for the year, the Director told media operatives, “When we compare 2020 to 2021, this year was undoubtedly worse. We saw triple the number of COVID infections and deaths in this second year of the pandemic than we did in 2020. Hospitals were stretched thin, vital medicines and supplies ran low, and our health systems were put to the test like never before.”
While this has been a sobering year, she said authorities have learnt what it takes to bring the virus under control and had COVID-19 vaccines to protect tens of millions of people.
Over the last week, the Americas reported over 926,056 new COVID infections which is an 18.4 per cent increase in COVID cases from previous weeks.
In Central America, cases are also down, except in Panama, where cases have steadily increased over the last month. There is a shift in South America, where infections have dropped in Bolivia for the first time since September, but increased in Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay. The situation remains steady in Brazil and Peru.
In the Caribbean, while infections are down overall, Trinidad and Tobago reached its highest weekly COVID case count and cases rose by 66 per cent in Saint Lucia over the last week.
“COVID does not simply go away, so we need to employ all the resources we have to stop it: vaccines, masks, social distancing, and, of course, surveillance…More than a third of all COVID cases and one in four COVID deaths reported worldwide have occurred here in the Americas. As we welcomed 2021, COVID vaccines had not yet arrived on our shores. Today, more than 1.3 billion COVID vaccine doses have been administered in the Americas.”

She added that although rollout of vaccines has not been as rapid, or as evenly distributed, 56 per cent of people in Latin America and the Caribbean have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
“Vaccine inequity continues to divide our region and if we don’t address these glaring gaps, we’ll fail to bring this virus under control. There is no magic bullet to protect us against COVID-19. That’s why we must embrace new tools and use them wisely. Right now, there are a few promising new drugs in late-stage development that may help us treat COVID, and thus avoid hospitalisations and prevent deaths.
If they are approved by regulatory authorities, she said authorities must be ready to leverage these technologies, building on the lessons of the last two years. The first lesson is that every decision must be grounded in evidence.
Dr Etienne added, “We urge countries in our region to heed the advice of the WHO, expert committees, scientists, and regulators whose jobs it is to carefully review the safety and efficacy of drugs and recommend when, where and how to deploy them. The second lesson is that we must be ready to deploy these tools once they become available.”
PAHO is tracking countries closely and is on deck to support countries, international organisations, companies, and partners to find alternative solutions to guarantee access to future COVID therapeutic tools, including antivirals.
“This region has the technical expertise, a well-established manufacturing capacity, strong regulatory infrastructure, and an effective pooled procurement mechanism via our Strategic Fund that, if effectively leveraged, will help us accelerate access to COVID technologies. But for this regional effort to work, we need the good will of companies to openly share these technologies and resources to all countries so that the Americas are not left behind as new tools become available,” she relayed.