Deaths from Covid decrease by 17% in America: PAHO

Reuters, Ap and Afp

La Jornada newspaper
Thursday, November 18, 2021, p. 18

Washington. Deaths from Covid-19 fell 17 percent in America last week, but the most populous countries, such as the United States, Brazil and Colombia, register a leveling out of new infections after weeks of downward trends, the Pan American Organization reported yesterday of Health (PAHO).

Mexico reports a growing trend in new deaths and in the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago has had a sharp increase in deaths as intensive care beds fill with Covid-19 patients, PAHO added.

In an important milestone, half of the people in Latin America and the Caribbean are fully vaccinated, although coverage remains below 10 percent in Nicaragua and Haiti. The Covid pandemic is still very active in our region, warned Carissa Etienne, Director of PAHO.

Central and South American countries have seen a decline in new infections, with the exception of Bolivia, he noted.

As Uruguay and Chile have relaxed pandemic restrictions, Covid-19 cases have skyrocketed, even with their high inoculation coverage, the health agency reported.

Etienne urged people in the region to get vaccinated, maintain social distancing and wear face masks for the remainder of the year.

PAHO cautioned that overuse of antibiotics helps bacteria develop resistance, rendering these drugs ineffective over time.

Several nations in the Americas, including Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Guatemala and Paraguay, report sudden increases in the detection of drug-resistant infections that have likely contributed to the rise in mortality in hospitalized patients with Covid-19, PAHO said.

We have seen antimicrobial use grow on an unprecedented scale, with potentially serious consequences. We risk losing drugs we depend on to treat common infectionsEtienne affirmed.

Antimicrobials are used outside of hospital settings, and drugs such as ivermectin and chloroquine are used as unproven treatments, even after strong evidence that they do not benefit Covid patients, he noted.

Data from hospitals in the region show that between 90 and 100 percent of hospitalized patients received an antimicrobial as part of their treatment against the coronavirus, while only 7 percent of them had a secondary infection that required the use of these drugs. detailed.

During the pandemic, we have taken the power of antimicrobials for granted, and it may be months or years before the full impact of their misuse and overuse becomes apparent., said.

The United States will invest millions of dollars to expand antigen production capacity against the virus to have at least 1 billion doses by the second half of next year, it reported. The New York Times by citing advisers from the White House, while the country registers an increase in infections with 150 thousand 191 confirmed positives in 24 hours.

Rio de Janeiro yesterday ended the mandatory use of face masks in some closed spaces.

Deaths from the coronavirus in Europe rose 5 percent last week, making it the only region in the world where they increased, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported.

Within Europe, the WHO said the highest numbers of new cases are in Russia, Germany and Britain. Deaths were up 67 percent in Norway and 38 percent in Slovakia.

Portugal (with 2,500 cases of Covid-19), Germany (with 52,800), Hungary (with 10,000), Czech Republic (with 22,400), Holland (with 20,800 and Poland (with 24,239) cases) registered new contagion milestones in one day.

A Northern California clinic administered the wrong dose of pediatric Covid-19 vaccine to 14 children over the weekend at their Antioch pediatric clinic, as they had wrong amount of diluent that is used to decrease the concentration of the vaccine, reported the television network KGO-TV. Instead of receiving 10 micrograms, they received 20.

According to Dr. Jimmy Chu, chair of the Covid-19 working group at Sutter Health, parents were notified as soon as we found out about this and we review our processes so that this does not happen againhe said in a statement.

The pandemic has left the world with 254 million 857 thousand 23 confirmed cases and 5 million 121 thousand 696 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.