COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the Americas: PAHO

Americas, News September 17, 2021 , by IRIA No Comments

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on September 15 that COVID-19 cases have risen in North America over the past week, mainly because of surges in Canada and the United States.

According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) regional branch, PAHO, new infections in Alberta, the province in Western Canada, have doubled and the hospitals are facing critical shortages of medical staff.

The PAHO also highlighted that hospital capacity in many southern states of the United States remains low and the U.S. is once again reporting more than 100,000 new infections every day.

The WHO’s regional branch raised concerns as the number of new cases continues to rise in the North and Americas reported a nearly 20% increase.

Although the number of new COVID-19 infections and deaths in most South American countries witnessed a decline, the infections have been increasing in some countries, including Belize, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, where hospitals are full of COVID-19 patients.

PAHO Director Carissa Etienne during a weekly briefing stated: “We are encouraged that more than 30% of the people in Latin America and the Caribbean have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.”

However, Carissa Etienne stressed that vaccine doses are not being equally distributed in the region and the goal of vaccinating most of the population remains far from reach.