Latin America is still a long way from injecting the first vaccines against covid-19, but this week Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, Panama and Costa Rica paved the way by giving the green light to the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccines.
As efforts to obtain the vaccine that the United States and Canada began supplying this week accelerate, America remains in a daily tragedy, with nearly 31 million positives from covid and 786,000 total deaths, the World Organization of Health said. WHO).
The warnings loom over Canada, Panama, Brazil, Colombia and Belize as the curve rises, warned Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) director Carissa Etienne. The United States continues on an uncontrolled path of infections with the fatal outcome of having passed the 300,000 deadline.
Globally, positives for covid-19 were 71.9 million today, after nearly half a million new cases were reported and the deaths remaining at 1.6 million last day, 8,400.
CLOSER TO IMMUNITY
Chile and Ecuador today approved the use of the Pfizer vaccine, making them the only two in South America to admit to stopping the virus. In this way, they join the decisions of Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama that have already approved the vaccination plan.
In addition, Latin American countries continue to negotiate agreements with pharmaceutical companies, despite the competitive market. The situation is different in the United States, which on Wednesday boasted of their prominent stocks, which could even allow them to share their “surpluses” with its “allies” in the world.
“We have currently contracted 900 million doses of the vaccine to deliver to us, and we have options to increase that to a total of 3,000 million doses,” US Health Secretary Alex Azar said in a news conference today.
“We believe we will in fact have surpluses in our vaccine supply, which is why the President (Donald Trump) has signed a decree committing to taking those surpluses, vaccines and production capacity” and using them “for the benefit of the world community. ” Azar added.
But Trump’s generosity contrasts with the suspicions he showed when he signed another executive order prohibiting domestically produced vaccines from being used abroad and has raised concerns in Canada about the possibility of the drug being delivered in the neighboring country. withheld. .
Canada has received about 30,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in recent hours, which was approved for use in the middle of last week, and expects to receive a total of 249,000 doses of the serum by the end of December. In addition, it is continuing its negotiations with Moderna to secure more doses of its vaccine, which it hopes to approve next week.
MULTILATERALISM, THE HOPE OF LATIN AMERICA
Faced with the images of the first injections in the north of the continent, Latin America is accelerating agreements with pharmaceutical companies and relying on multilateral organizations to ensure access to the antidote as soon as possible.
One such impetus is being given by PAHO, WHO’s regional office, which said Wednesday it is in dialogue with Moderna and Pfizer to ensure universal access to the vaccine in the Americas.
“We already have two producers who have signed agreements to offer a quantity of vaccines for 2021 and we have two producers in the negotiation process,” said the agency’s deputy director, Jarbas Barbosa, at the last press conference of the year. .
In addition, at least 27 American countries have entered into agreements with COVAX – the global vaccine research platform – to receive doses from pharmaceutical companies, while another nine will receive it as a donation due to their financial circumstances, although it is not yet known when.
These agreements represent a significant achievement, as nearly a quarter of the world’s population will not have access to the vaccine until 2022, according to a study published this week in The BMJ.
CHRISTMAS FESTIVALS DANGER
Access to a vaccine has become increasingly important as the disease hits the continent harder and Christmas festivities are on the heels of authorities considering new restrictions.
The Medical College of Peru – a country with 987,675 cases discovered and 36,817 deaths – announced that it is evaluating asking the government for a new quarantine to prevent a resurgence of the epidemic over the holiday season.
On the other hand, the Dominican Republic government will tighten restrictions after an increase in cases and Rio de Janeiro has definitively canceled its traditional “Reveillon” party due to the outbreak of the pandemic.
In Colombia, where pressure on UCIS is mounting, Colombian President, Iván Duque, has ruled out a new mandatory general quarantine, but medical associations warned that it is not always possible to rely on the individual care of citizens.
In Bogotá, which is the region most affected by the pandemic in Colombia with 411,689 infections, the Mayor’s Office on Tuesday ordered the suspension to January 15, 2021 of non-urgent surgical procedures of medium or very complex nature, as well as those of medium complexity requiring hospitalization.
On the other hand, Uruguay’s President Luis Lacalle Pou convened his entire cabinet to discuss with his ministers the measures he will be announcing in the coming hours with a view to reducing cases, which have skyrocketed in recent weeks and they already support the theory of a “first wave” in the country.