BRAZIL (Reuters) – More than 1 million people have died from COVID-19 in North and South America, the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Wednesday.
In the past week alone, another 2 million cases have been reported in the Americas, with the United States the main driver of the outbreak, the WTO regional branch said. Worldwide, there were more than 100 million cases and 2.1 million deaths with 44 million cases in North and South America, according to a Reuters version.
During North America, there is increasing pressure on hospital capacity, and in some U.S. states, nearly 80% of ICU beds are used to treat COVID-19 patients, PAissa head Carissa Etienne said in a virtual briefing.
Similar rates are seen in many states in Mexico, where the number of cases in some regions is tripling, she warned.
The hospital in Brazil is of particular concern, with three-quarters of ICU beds in many Brazilian states.
In Manaus, many patients are waiting on beds in hospitals collapsing under the strain of a second wave of coronavirus infections complicated by a new variant of the virus being detected there.
Variants that originated in the region or beyond have been detected in 14 countries in North and South America, PAHO said.
Only a few cases of the British and South African mutations have been found, mainly on travelers, and according to PAHO they do not seem to be spreading in the region, but the Amazon variant that originated in the Brazilian city of Manaus does appear. . to have a high transmission rate.
PAHO expects to launch COVID-19 vaccines made available to poorer countries through the UN-led COVAX plant in March, with approximately 164 million doses.
The COVAX facility is expected to use 2 billion doses worldwide.
Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Edited by Lisa Shumaker