COVID-19 infections are reaching new peaks in the Americas, with 7.2 million new cases and more than 15,000 deaths related to the disease in the last week, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) noted.
“The virus is spreading more actively than ever”, said the director of PAHO, Carissa Etiennein an information session.
North America, the United States, and Canada continue to experience an increase in hospitalizations for COVID-19. Meanwhile, the Caribbean has the most pronounced increase in coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic, the regional health agency said.
Due to the paucity of evidence, the OPS recommended that countries prioritize rapid antigen tests in people with symptoms of COVID-19 who are at risk of spreading the virus.
Although more than 60% of the population in Latin America and the Caribbean received the complete vaccination schedule against the coronavirus, ómicron is expanding rapidly in all regions, he indicated. Sylvain Aldighieri, Incident Manager for COVID-19 of the OPS.
The advance of the variant in the coming weeks and months will depend on public health measures to contain it, including the use of masks and social distance, but above all vaccination, to reduce severe cases and hospitalizations due to COVID-19, he added.
Brazil reported a record 137,103 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours as omicron spreads across Latin America’s largest country, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday. New infections climbed above the previous daily record of 115,228 set in June last year.
Brazil holds the world’s third-highest record for COVID-19 deaths after the United States and Russia, according to a Reuters tally.
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