Reuters and AP
Newspaper La Jornada
Thursday, May 19, 2022, p. 13
São Paulo. The covid-19 increases again in America, since many countries have abandoned measures such as the use of masks and social distancing, and the vaccination objectives were not met, warned yesterday Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Organization of the Health (PAHO). The truth is that this virus is not going away anytime soon.
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Cases in the countries of the continent increased 27.2 percent last week compared to the previous one, mainly due to a spike in infections in the United States. Another member of US President Joe Biden’s cabinet has tested positive: Health Secretary Xavier Becerra.
More than half of a total of 918,000 infections were in North America, where US cases rose 33 percent in the last week.
Etienne indicated that many governments have abandoned protection measures against the virus, but that in reality the use of masks and social distancing have served us since the beginning of the pandemic and continue to be valid measures to reduce the transmission of the virus
so you must be prepared to take them up again.
He added that only 14 of the 51 countries and territories in the Americas reached the World Health Organization goal of vaccinating 70 percent of their population.
PAHO highlighted that new infections and deaths from covid-19 in the region have increased steadily in the past four weeks, with more than 3,500 fatalities the previous week.
In Central America there was the highest percentage increase in cases, with 80 percent. In Brazil, the second most populous country in the Americas, infections increased 9 percent.
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that the most affected areas should consider returning to the use of masks in closed spaces.
North Korea reported yesterday that more than a million people have already recovered from suspected cases of covid-19 just a week after acknowledging an outbreak that the country faced without importing vaccines or medicines.
The authorities announced 232 thousand 880 new cases of fever. The total number of deaths rises to 62 while the number of patients exceeds the barrier of 1.7 million since the end of April. At least 691,170 people are still in quarantine.
The coronavirus pandemic has left 525 million 197 thousand 171 infections and 6 million 283 thousand 191 deaths, reported Johns Hopkins University.
