06/20/2021 16:00
Clarín.com
World
Updated 06/20/2021 4:00 PM
In Latin America and the Caribbean,
only one in 10 people is vaccinated
against the coronavirus despite the fact that cases continue to increase and the threat posed by the new variants of the disease that circulate in the region.
This and five other news items of the week make up the keys to vaccination in America:
The director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Carissa F. Etienne,
asked the G7 countries to give priority
to Latin America and the Caribbean when donating one billion vaccines.
The reason is simple.
Only one in 10 people has been vaccinated in this part of the world, where
"hospitals are full
, variants circulate rapidly" and "vaccines are urgently needed today," Etienne said.
The coronavirus hit hard in Brazil.
AP Photo
In the official's opinion, "the countries that are suffering the most should be at the front of the line"
to receive donations
of biologicals.
When reporting on the lethal trajectory of the pandemic, the PAHO director stressed that in the last week
more than 1.1 million new cases
and 31,000 deaths were registered in the Americas, including the United States and Canada.
The Delta variant
US President Joe Biden warned on Friday that the delta variant of the coronavirus
will do "a lot of damage"
in some areas of his country if the vaccination campaign, which has slowed down in recent weeks, does not advance soon.
"We will not have to confine anything, but
in some areas it
will do a lot of damage," said the president.
This variant, identified for the first time in India and more contagious, already accounts for 10% of all COVID-19 cases detected in the United States, so the health authorities are very concerned that the situation in the United Kingdom will be repeated. ,
where this variant is already prevalent
and has delayed the plans to reopen that country.
In the midst of this, the United States
surpassed 300 million
administered
doses
of vaccines in 150 days, since Biden came to power on January 20.
Sanctions and vaccines
The United States government
relaxed some
economic
sanctions
against Venezuela on
Thursday
to allow the acquisition of materials related to the pandemic, such as vaccines, masks, oxygen tanks or ventilators, according to the Treasury Department.
The decision comes after an analysis within Joe Biden's government
to assess whether the sanctions
"are unduly hampering responses to the pandemic" by affected countries.
In the specific case of Venezuela, the Treasury Department
explained that the measure will allow sanctioned entities such
as the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), the Bank of Venezuela and the Banco Bicentenario and its subsidiaries to carry out this type of transaction.
So far, the Caribbean country has said it has received
3.23 million vaccines
.
The Government hopes to complete 22 million biologicals to immunize 70% of the Venezuelan population.
On the border
The Mexican government released this week in Baja California the first doses of the
1.35 million
Johnson & Johnson
vaccines
donated by the United States to reopen the border, which has been closed to non-essential travel for 15 months.
The authorities enabled 16 vaccination points in the 6 municipalities of the state.
With more than 230,000 deaths and almost 2.5 million official infections
, Mexico is the fourth country in the world in the number of deaths from covid-19.
So far, Mexico has only supplied just over 38 million doses of different drugs and
more than 15 million citizens
have completed their vaccination schedule in a country of 126 million inhabitants.
In Argentina
Argentina, which has added
4.2 million cases and 87,261 deaths
since the beginning of the pandemic
, reached 17,172,628 vaccines applied, of which 13,609,451 correspond to the first dose, 29.70% of the population, and 3,563,177 to the second, 7.77%, according to official sources.
Even so, several unions of personnel that provide services in terminals of San Lorenzo, the main agro-exporting port cordon in Argentina, carried out a strike demanding that
the operators be vaccinated
since they were declared essential workers and, therefore, they have not stopped operating in means of the health emergency.
Despite the stoppage, on a positive note in the country this Friday, Richmond Laboratories announced that it had
finished the production of the first batch of
Sputnik V
vaccines
made in the South American nation.
End of the year
Hopeful was the proposal of the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, who affirmed that the advance of vaccination in this Brazilian city
already allows us to think
about the organization of the famous and massive Rio de Janeiro end-of-year party, whose last edition was canceled by the pandemic.
According to the local president, at least half of the adult population of the second largest Brazilian city has
already received the first dose
and the forecast is that the other half will be immunized until the end of August.
Brazil applied
a record 2.56 million vaccines nationwide
on Thursday
(2.09 million with the first dose and 132,686 with the second), which in five months has already offered the first dose to 60.38 million of people, 28.5% of its 212 million inhabitants.
The second dose, however, has only been applied to 24.03 million Brazilians,
11.3% of the population.
Source: EFE
PB
Look also
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