America, in intensive care due to the new wave of the pandemic

In the midst of the intense vaccination campaigns that have been imposed by the different governments in the American countries, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Paraguay end this Friday a week with two peaks and emergency measures to leave the intensive care to which they were taken by the latest data on infections and deaths from covid-19.

And it is not a phenomenon exclusive to the continent. The World Health Organization (WHO), led by its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned this Friday that the covid-19 pandemic is on track to reach the highest peak of infections recorded so far, unless the curve bends quickly.

“The number of weekly cases has practically doubled in the last two months and this means that we are approaching the highest level of infections that we have seen so far in the pandemic,” he commented at a press conference.

IN BRAZIL THE SECOND WAVE HITS UNDER 40

In the South American giant, a country that is experiencing a second wave more virulent and lethal than the first, with an average of 3,000 deaths per day, for the first time since the start of the pandemic, people under 40 years of age are the majority among hospitalized patients in Intensive Care Units (ICU).

Data from the Brazilian Association of Intensive Care Medicine (AMIB) show that young people responded for 52.2% of patients under intensive care in March, a jump of 16.5% compared to the period between September and November of last year and a record figure for this age group.

Despite the crisis, the Government of Sao Paulo, the state most punished in the country by the coronavirus, announced the reopening, with limitations, of shops and churches as of Sunday.

The São Paulo authorities justified the relaxation of the restrictions, in force since last March 6, based on a slight decrease in hospital admissions due to covid-19.

COLOMBIA CLOSES ITS MAIN CITIES

The virulence of the third wave of covid-19, which triggered infections and deaths in the Andean country several weeks ago, forced Bogotá and Medellín, the two largest cities in the country, to impose new quarantines to which sectors strongly oppose hit by confinements, like commerce.

A new total confinement began today and will continue during the weekend in the two regions hardest hit by the health emergency, as well as in the Caribbean department of Atlántico and in at least 40 municipalities in Valle del Cauca (southwest), areas on alert maximum due to the high occupancy of intensive care units (ICU).

Infections and deaths in Colombia have tripled in the last week, exceeding 16,000 daily infections, figures that the country had not registered for more than two months, when the second peak of the pandemic put hospital networks to the limit.

ECUADOR WITH SATURATED HOSPITALS AND PARAGUAY ON THE EDGE

In Ecuador, saturated hospitals, exhausted doctors and a slow vaccination process mark the fight against covid-19. In the Andean country, official figures speak of more than 355,000 infected, although doctors consider that there is a high under-registration since not all the population accesses PCR tests.

In Paraguay, the director of Health Surveillance, Guillermo Sequera, advanced that the country will reach 100 deaths a day with the current rate of coronavirus infections, and warned that “the situation is critical.”

The number of cases remains on a “high plateau”, which began at the end of February and tripled to reach 14,000 a week, a figure that is also expected to close this week, according to data that the Ministry of Health manages until the date.

CANADA TRIGGERS ITS ALARMS

Canadian authorities also expressed concern about the evolution of the pandemic, after the country this week set two consecutive records for daily infection records.

“Canada continues to face an incredibly dire situation with this third wave. Cases are increasing rapidly. In many places the numbers are higher than ever and too many hospitals are on edge, “warned Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

US DESTINES 1,700 MILLION DOLLARS TO FIGHT MUTATIONS

In the United States, which today exceeded 202 million doses of vaccines administered, the Government of President Joe Biden announced an investment of 1.7 billion dollars for the detection, surveillance and mitigation of mutations of the SARS-COV-2 virus, which causes covid-19.

This decision was given in part to the fact that infections and deaths from coronavirus have accelerated in recent days, especially in the Midwest, due on the one hand to the greater threat posed by the new variants, especially the British one, but also to the relaxation of measures in some areas.

Similarly, the company Johnson & Johnson (J&J) privately asked the pharmaceutical companies that have also developed a vaccine against covid-19 to work together to study the risks of blood clots and speak with one voice about the safety of the drug, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Friday.

For its part, Mexico announced, more than a year after the closure of schools due to the covid-19 pandemic, an accelerated vaccination plan for its 3 million teachers in order to reopen schools between May and June.

Likewise, the Peruvian Government kicked off its new vaccination plan with which it hopes to achieve the vaccination of all those over 80 years of age before August and advance that of those over 65, who in total add up to more than 4.3 million people.