Despite the outbreak later than the rest of the world, the Covid-19 pandemic is indeed making Latin American countries miserable, despite regional governments, sooner or later, have accepted it. sacrifice economic benefits, implement a range of measures at all levels from social spacing, compulsory isolation, border blockade to issuing a curfew order to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV virus -2.
The Inter-American Health Organization (PAHO) said Latin America will have to wait for very difficult weeks ahead, warning that this is not the time to relax the restrictions applied to control SARS virus. -CoV-2, as governments in Brazil, Mexico and Peru are doing, also have the highest number of cases in the region.
Status alarming
PAHO’s Director of Infectious Diseases Marcos Espinal said that the disease situation in Brazil - the country hardest hit by Covid-19 in the region will not be relieved by next week and there is still a long way to go. need to overcome.
Meanwhile, the incidence of the disease is also continuously increasing in Chile, Peru, Ecuador, and Venezuela with signs that the spread of this pandemic is still accelerating. In Peru, despite being the first South American country to impose restrictions, it is currently the region’s second largest epidemic region after Brazil. Peru within 45 days (starting from 6/3), the number of infections in this country has reached nearly 120,000 people.
In Mexico, the government loosened restrictions, starting to restart the economy with mining operations, construction as well as a number of car production supply chains in North America to continue. Works this week. But PAHO thinks the country will still see a continuous increase in Covid-19 cases, and this is not the time to ease the restrictions. The situation is also forecast to be similar to El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua.
PAHO predicts that in South America only Cuba, Bolivia and Paraguay will probably see a slight decrease in the number of positive cases with SARS-CoV-2 virus. Mr. Espinal also said that most South American countries do not perform enough tests to detect patients. Therefore, he suggested that extensive testing is the only way to get a clear picture of the epidemic’s progress. Even before the outbreak, Latin American economies were not fully equipped to upgrade their health care systems.
In addition, the UN projects that Latin America’s economy will grow by 5.3% in 2020, the lowest since 1930, leading to a negative impact on the unemployment rate. The International Labor Organization forecasts that around 37.7 million people in the region will have no jobs. The proportion of the poor is also expected to increase compared to 2019, with about 650 million people in Latin America continuing extreme poverty and poverty.
People emotionally hugged at the cemetery after burying a series of Covid-19 victims in Manaus, Brazil, on May 19. (Source: Getty Images)
Brazil goes against the world
Brazil has had many months to study the successes and mistakes of the first virus-hit countries. Brazil’s powerful public healthcare system should have been implemented to conduct mass checks as well as monitor the progress of newly infected patients.
For his part, President Jair Bolsonaro has always gone against the epidemic measures of the world, criticizing them not to sacrifice economic benefits. Bolsonaro himself also disagreed with cabinet members over how to deal with the crisis of Covid-19 acute respiratory infections, making within two months two ministers of health were dismissed or resigned. .
According to WHO, regional epidemic, Brazil will be able to reach the highest number of 1,020 deaths per day on June 22 and on August 4, this South American country can have up to 88,300 deaths due to Covid-19, 4 times the number officially recorded to this day.
Health experts say Brazil’s failure to act early and drastically has gone against its ingenious approach to past health crises, such as the spread of viruses. causing HIV immunodeficiency syndrome or Zika brain virus.
While the first wave of epidemics has not passed, experts say that Latin America is still at risk of receiving the second wave, which is expected to appear by the end of October when measures are limited. The society has been lifted. And then everything from the epidemic situation to the economic impact will be worse, if the countries here do not come up with more effective disease prevention strategies today.
