The epidemic is spreading in Latin America
For more than seven weeks, global corona numbers have been on a downward trend since the beginning of this year, until last week. Mars signal World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tetros Adanom Caprais said the development was “disappointing, but not surprising”. As many countries have become “undoubtedly” the scale of the epidemic is once again swell globally, the WHO chairman recalled.
In Europe, the Middle East and South Asia, infections are on the rise, but especially in Latin America. On the latter continent, there is one country that raises the regional pollution curve in particular: Brazil. In South America’s largest country with a population of 220 million, tens of thousands of people have died from Govt-19 in the past week alone. This means that the death toll is now higher than the first wave, which hit the country hard last year as well.
President Jair Bolzano, who has systematically underestimated the severity of the virus since the outbreak, wants to keep society and the economy fully open, urging Brazilians to “stop whining” over the weekend. The day after a new death toll (1,910 deaths in a single day) was recorded, the right-wing populist ex-army captain complained on Thursday: “How long will you cry about this? How long are you going to cover everything from home? No one can have this anymore. We mourn the deaths, but we need a solution. ”
Meanwhile, Bolzano leaves it up to the lesser executives to find that ‘solution’. In the absence of an effective federal approach, it is up to the federal states and municipalities to take urgent action. Since daily life has largely resumed in recent months, they have been announcing locks since last week. Due to dissatisfaction with the slow start of the nationwide vaccination campaign, some governors have joined forces to save vaccines from drugs.
How long will you cry about this?
Jair Bolzano President Brazil
In the most populous state in Sao Paulo (46 million people), ‘Code Red’ has applied since Saturday, allowing all essential stores to close for two weeks. There is a fear that the health system will collapse without this intervention. Governor Jono Toria, who wants to bid for the presidency in 2022, announced his decision and harshly criticized Bolzano. The center-right politician called the president “a crazy guy.” Unfortunately, we are fighting against two viruses. Corona virus and polzano virus, ”he joked.
The evangelical Christian mayor of Rio de Janeiro (nearly 7 million people) was banned from going to the much-loved beach. There was also a (mild) curfew: residents were no longer allowed to roam outside from eleven in the evening until five in the morning. Also, restaurants and pubs should be closed at five in the afternoon a week and dance venues will be partially closed.
New types
The emergence of new virus types is due to the fact that Brazilians send the virus back to each other quickly. A mutant who knows as far as the forest city of Manas is particularly concerned – and internationally.
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This million-dollar city in the Amazon rainforest was badly affected during the first wave last year, and local immunity is believed to be thanks to a relatively high level of immunity. However, since November, there has been a second major eruption at lightning speed, which completely submerged the health system. According to an initial scientific investigation The B1 variant now in circulation may affect people already infected with the virus.
The appearance of ‘B1’ and other corona types also raises the question of whether the increasingly available vaccines in the region are working against it. Like almost all Latin American countries, Brazil is mainly dependent on Russian and Chinese vaccines. Although they have been shown to be effective, they are more easily adapted to newer virus types than BioTech / Pfizer, Moderna’s Western MRNA vaccines (and may even be Curavac later this year).
Regional power Brazil borders ten neighboring countries, making the new corona spike a concern for the rest of the continent – vaccinations are still very slow. Even in South American pin champion Chile, where 12 percent of the population has already been vaccinated, the pollution curve is now rising slightly again. With more than 5,000 infections diagnosed each day, there are different areas and areas of the capital, Santiago. Went to the locked position.
Concerns about vaccine corruption
The ongoing epidemic, the measures against it and its economic damage are causing unrest. In Formosa, the provincial capital of Argentina, street protests have been going on for days against the Corona policy. Paraguay’s two largest cities, Asunciோன்n and Ciudad del Este, are crumbling Demonstrations against the government and its corona approach In the riots last weekend. Stone-throwing tear gas and rubber bullets against demonstrators.
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Paraguay was able to retain the virus in the first months of the epidemic, but the number of infections has been on the rise for several weeks. Health workers and relatives of Govt victims are angry about the shortage of medicines and the slow delivery of vaccines. In an effort to curb social unrest, Paraguayan President Mario Apto Benedettes replaced three ministers in his cabinet this weekend.
Corona dissatisfaction, like most countries in the region, is triggered by corruption scandals involving the purchase and distribution of vaccines. In Peru, hundreds of prominent individuals have been implicated in so-called vacuum VIP scams because they were secretly vaccinated by the Chinese candidate in September. A similar situation is happening in Argentina.
Also in Ecuador, the Minister of Health arrived in late January Discredited Because he was allowed to take part in a trial with the Nursing Home Pfizer vaccine where his own mother lives.
Version of this article was published in nrc.next on March 8, 2021
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