Vaccinated countries witnessing sharp decline in cases – PAHO

Countries with a high vaccination rate across the Caribbean and Latin America are now witnessing a steady decline in the positive cases recorded, painting a positive outlook as they navigate through the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) Director, Dr Carissa F Etienne underscored that COVID-19 cases are steadily declining in Costa Rica, where nearly one in three people are vaccinated. South American countries with higher rates of vaccinations, including Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina, are reporting sharp decreases in cases. Cases are also decreasing across Canada and most of the United States.
But in Latin America and the Caribbean overall, only 15 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated, and some countries, including Honduras and Haiti, have yet to reach one per cent.

With its low vaccination rate, Honduras is seeing an increase in cases along its border. COVID-19 infections are increasing in most Central American countries, with Guatemala reporting high cases and hospitalisations. Other smaller islands are also reporting an increase in infections, among them Martinique, which is experiencing a tripling of cases. Hotspots also persist in Amazonian states in Colombia and Peru.
“These trends illustrate how COVID-19 remains entrenched within our region, particularly in countries with low vaccination coverage,” Dr Etienne said.
In Guyana, where over 50 per cent of the eligible population have taken their first dose and second doses crossing 25 per cent, local authorities and Government are pushing further for the country to meet herd immunity. This can only be done, however, if people come out and get their jabs.
She reiterated that public health measures, such as physical distancing, wearing masks, and avoiding crowds – as well as infection control through testing, contact tracing, quarantining, and isolation – remain vital. In total in the past week, the Americas reported more than 967,000 new cases and 22,000 deaths, which reflects a slight decline from the week before.
The Director was at the time reporting that the Americas’ year-old COVID-19 Genomic Surveillance Regional Network “keeps a close eye” on the emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants throughout the region.
“The network has been instrumental in monitoring the virus’s spread within border regions and among travellers, who are often the first to introduce variants into a country,” Dr Etienne said during her weekly media briefing.
So far, 47 countries and territories in the Americas have detected at least one “variant of concern” and 11 have detected all four of them – alpha, beta, gamma, and delta.
The Network initially started as a handful of public health labs in 2020, including the regional sequencing labs Fundação Oswaldo Cruz/FIOCRUZ – Brazil and Instituto de Salud Pública de Chile (ISPCH), which carry out sequencing for countries without local capacity. It has now grown to include 24 labs in total, among them four additional reference laboratories – Mexico’s Institute of Epidemiological Diagnostics and Reference (INDRE), the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the University of West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago, and the Gorgas Institute in Panama.
“Together, and using science as a common language, countries committed to bolster their laboratory capacity, hire staff, and make surveillance a priority, building on the legacy of our region’s longstanding dengue and influenza surveillance and laboratory networks… The COVID-19 Genomic Surveillance Regional Network is an example of the power of Pan-Americanism and the importance of working together to control this virus. We must bring the same spirit of collaboration and solidarity to other dimensions of our COVID-19 response, especially vaccines.”
PAHO supports the network by standardising laboratory protocols, conducting trainings, and donating supplies.