As Brazil emerges as the center of the coronavirus pandemic with a virtually uninterrupted outbreak, the country’s regional neighbors are experiencing a worrying increase in infections.
Brazil, where a more contagious variant of the new coronavirus is in circulation, died Wednesday of a record 3869 people due to COVID-19, its highest one-day score to date, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. In total, the country had more than 12.8 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, including more than 325,000 deaths. The data from Johns Hopkins shows that Brazil now has only the second place in the United States in the number of cases and the death toll due to the disease.
The regional director of the World Health Organization for America, Carissa Etienne, warned that COVID-19 was rising ‘dangerously’ in Brazil and urged all Brazilians to take preventative measures to stop the spread.
“Unfortunately, the dire situation in Brazil is also affecting neighboring countries,” Etienne said at a news conference last week.
But Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, remains unaware of the need for activity restrictions, arguing that such measures would infringe on personal freedom and the resulting economic downfall would be worse than the virus itself.
Many other South American countries are now blaming Brazil’s uncontrolled outbreak for seeing their own numbers swell. Several closed borders, suspended flights, locked up or imposed other restrictions in an attempt to control the virus.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said last week that “Brazil is now a threat to the world” and blamed Bolsonaro for his “reckless attitude” towards the pandemic. Although the Venezuelan government has not released official COVID-19 figures, Johns Hopkins data show that the country is facing a serious wave of new infections. There were 1,348 newly confirmed cases in Venezuela, according to the Johns Hopkins data, the highest daily total of the country.
A medical group linked by the opposition said Venezuelan hospitals were struggling with the number of patients in intensive care and asking for more ventilators.
In Colombia, there were 11,449 cases of COVID-19 on Thursday that were recently confirmed, according to Johns Hopkins data, the highest one-day count since the end of January.
Last week, Colombian President Ivan Duque canceled a scheduled trip to Brazil to meet Bolsonaro, citing the country’s worse outbreak. Earlier this year, Colombia banned flights from Brazil due to the variant there.
Ecuador has seen a disturbing increase in COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the year and recently imposed a curfew in eight provinces
According to Johns Hopkins data, there were 7868 cases in Ecuador on Thursday, the highest daily total since mid-June in Ecuador.
Peru announced last week that a study by the country’s national institute of health found that about 40% of COVID-19 cases in the capital Lima were due to the Brazilian variant that struck the Amazon at the beginning of the year. region of the country. The Peruvian government has banned all flights from Brazil until April 15.
According to Johns Hopkins, there were 19,206 new cases in Peru on March 20, the highest one-day count since early August.
Bolivia has temporarily begun its border with Brazil from Friday. Officials said there would be room for some cross-border trade during the closure.
There were 1,072 cases of COVID-19 in Bolivia on Tuesday, the highest daily total in more than two weeks, according to Johns Hopkins data.
According to Johns Hopkins, Chile, which boasts one of the fastest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the world, the 1 million mark on Thursday, amid 7868 newly confirmed infections, is the country’s highest one-day count since mid-June. data.
The Chilean government has closed its borders for the month of April and tightened restrictions on movement amid an already strict lockdown. The new measures came when officials warned that hospitals were approaching capacity with younger victims of the disease.
Argentina has warned of an “explosive increase” in COVID-19 cases, prompting authorities there to impose new restrictions, encourage people to work from home, close land borders and flee different countries , including Brazil and Chile. The Argentine government is also now delaying the administration of the second dose of COVID-19 vaccines for three months in an effort to get first doses in as many arms as possible “to maximize the benefits of vaccination and reduce the impact of hospitalizations and deaths. . “
According to Johns Hopkins data, there were 16,056 cases in Argentina on Wednesday, the highest daily total since mid-October. According to authorities, business has increased by more than 30% in the capital Buenos Aires in the past week, compared to the previous week. The fresh wave of infections is thought to be driven by three highly contagious variants that are thought to have originated in Brazil, the United Kingdom and the United States.
As Brazil becomes an epicenter of COVID-19, cases in South America originally appeared on abcnews.go.com