Latin America sees half of all new Covid-19 infections as health systems flounder
At the end of April, video emerged from the main hospital in the Brazilian city of Manaus of bodies lined up in corridors, the victims of a sudden surge in the coronavirus. At the same time, the city began digging mass graves for hundreds of people who'd not even had the chance of treatment.
Since then, similar scenes have played out across Latin America, which has seen an explosive spread of the coronavirus. In Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city, coffins were fashioned from cardboard boxes as bodies were left uncollected. In the Chilean capital Santiago, public hospitals were overwhelmed as lockdown was eased too soon.
In the last week of June, coronavirus deaths averaged more than 2,000 a day in Latin America and the Caribbean -- half of all recorded deaths worldwide, according to a CNN tally of WHO data. Most forecasts suggest the picture will get much grimmer -- with nearly 440,000 deaths expected across the region by October, according to the University of Washington.
Some Amazon towns in Brazil are more than 500 kilometers from the nearest ICU bed. In 2016, there were fewer than three beds per 100,000 inhabitants in some northern states in Brazil, but more than 20 beds per 100,000 in the wealthier south-east. The PAHO has warned that the region won't overcome the virus unless it improves care for marginalized communities, such as indigenous peoples in the Amazon. CNN reported a surge of infections this week among the Xavante people in the north-east of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.
Alejandro Gaviria, Colombia's former health minister and now rector of the University of the Andes, is apprehensive about what the rest of 2020 will bring. "Three problems overlap," he says, "a growing pandemic, a social devastation and an increasing fatigue with lockdowns. New lockdowns will only be possible with strict and repressive enforcement measures."
Since then, similar scenes have played out across Latin America, which has seen an explosive spread of the coronavirus. In Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city, coffins were fashioned from cardboard boxes as bodies were left uncollected. In the Chilean capital Santiago, public hospitals were overwhelmed as lockdown was eased too soon.
In the last week of June, coronavirus deaths averaged more than 2,000 a day in Latin America and the Caribbean -- half of all recorded deaths worldwide, according to a CNN tally of WHO data. Most forecasts suggest the picture will get much grimmer -- with nearly 440,000 deaths expected across the region by October, according to the University of Washington.
Some Amazon towns in Brazil are more than 500 kilometers from the nearest ICU bed. In 2016, there were fewer than three beds per 100,000 inhabitants in some northern states in Brazil, but more than 20 beds per 100,000 in the wealthier south-east. The PAHO has warned that the region won't overcome the virus unless it improves care for marginalized communities, such as indigenous peoples in the Amazon. CNN reported a surge of infections this week among the Xavante people in the north-east of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.
Alejandro Gaviria, Colombia's former health minister and now rector of the University of the Andes, is apprehensive about what the rest of 2020 will bring. "Three problems overlap," he says, "a growing pandemic, a social devastation and an increasing fatigue with lockdowns. New lockdowns will only be possible with strict and repressive enforcement measures."
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