In commenting on the alarming status of the coronavirus pandemic in the Americas, Dr. Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) stated on April 7 that “nowhere are infections as worrisome as in South America, where cases are mounting in nearly every country.” She pointed out that in areas of Bolivia and Colombia, cases have doubled in the week of March 31-April 7, and that all four countries of the Southern Cone—Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile—”have been experiencing an acceleration in COVID-19 cases, with uninterrupted community transmission in recent weeks.”
To elaborate, on the same day, Uruguay had a record number of 4,000 new cases, Argentina hit a record of 22,309 new cases, and Peruvian health authorities reported that the highly-infectious P.1 “Manaus” variant is now present everywhere in the country, but especially in areas bordering Brazil, and in the capital of Lima. Also on April 7, Brazil reported a record high of 4,249 deaths. Chile is in total crisis. Despite having vaccinated 45% of its population of 19 million people, new cases have increased by 43% in the past two weeks, with daily new cases surpassing 8,000. This is partly due to early relaxation of public health measures and increased mobility of the population during the southern summer months of December through March, which have now produced what some are calling “a perfect storm” of infections in parts of the country.
