New Covid-19 Surge Sweeps in Latin America

Cases are increasing rapidly in Colombia, Peru, Argentina and Chile, and even Uruguay and Paraguay, two countries that escaped the pandemic relatively unscathed.

Uruguay, which only received about 10 daily new infections at the end of September, registered more than 500 a day so far in the past week. President Luis Lacalle Pou said the country would close its borders to visitors during the holiday season and limit crowds and some public transportation. “The second wave of the world is our first wave,” he said.

Paraguay posted nearly 1,200 new cases per day in December, compared to 150 in August, which officials say are already overwhelming hospitals in the poor landlocked country. Health Minister Julio Mazzoleni said the country is entering “a new, very difficult phase of the pandemic.”

Colder weather in the Northern Hemisphere is partly responsible for the resurgence in cases in Mexico as more people were forced inside. But the main factor across the region seems to be fatigue with social distance measures. In Brazil, people increasingly gather on the beach and at parties during the summer in the southern hemisphere.

“People have completely let down their vigilance: they plan parties, travel and they will pay the price,” said Eliseu Waldman, an epidemiologist at the University of São Paulo.

Latin America, with 8% of the world’s population, is responsible for about a third of global Covid-19 deaths. Brazil has recorded more than 184,000 deaths, the second after 312,000 in the US.

The actual toll of the pandemic – including people who died from Covid-19 but were not included in countries’ official tolls – is much higher. The three countries with the highest excess mortality this year – the number of people who have died compared to previous years – are all in Latin America: Peru, Ecuador and Mexico.

In a sharp change in tone from previous months, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has urged Mexicans to stay home for the next 10 days as the Christmas festivities approach. His government is rushing to help the capital increase hospital capacity.

Public hospitals in Mexico City were 80% occupied on Thursday, the highest rate in the pandemic, according to data from the Ministry of Health.

‘I heard the beds are running out, so we decided to come. But it looks like it’s too late, ”said Adela Rayón, 42, who took her father Alfredo, 70, to Mexico City’s Hospital General, one of the largest in Latin America, but was rejected. She fought back tears as she spoke.

Many health workers are preparing for what they believe will be the saddest Christmas. “This feels like a never-ending nightmare,” said Javier Hernandez, an emergency physician at Hospital 72 of the National Health Service of Mexico.

The mayor of Cali, Colombia, where 90% of hospital beds are occupied, introduced a ‘red alert’ order this week, including a curfew and restrictions on the sale of alcohol from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.

The port and tourist hub of Cartagena, Colombia, has denied sailors access to their ships, banned sunbathing or swimming on Caribbean beaches, and closed all nightclubs until mid-January.

Claudia Lopez, mayor of Bogotá, is begging citizens to hold their family gatherings virtually this year. “When you think of family reunification, let it be your nuclear family alone,” she said.

In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, intensive care beds for Covid-19 patients in public hospitals have 92% capacity, city officials said. While the seven-day average of daily deaths in Brazil – on Thursday 723 according to Our World in Data – is still below the peak of 1,097 at the end of July, the number of cases and deaths are on the rise.

While many countries in the region have ordered vaccines, a wide-ranging vaccination campaign will still take months. Some countries, such as Mexico, do not expect to have most people vaccinated until the end of 2021 or early 2022.

Many younger Brazilians, frustrated after months of incarceration and convinced that they won’t end up in hospital beds, ignore government guidelines and go back to bars and parties. While cities have tried to impose new restrictions, prohibiting establishments from São Paulo from serving alcohol after 8pm, many bars have also violated these rules after narrowly escaping bankruptcy during previous lockdowns.

“People don’t give a shit anymore,” said Chi Yen Chang, a 33-year-old college student from São Paulo, who said 12 of his friends in their 20s and 30s were planning a hedonistic trip to Rio for New Year’s Eve. While the city has canceled official events, revelers organize their own gatherings via social media.

In Peru, another country badly hit by the pandemic, Piura is the focal point of new infections, a northern coastal state with popular beach resorts that normally attract tourists on vacation. The positivity rate for Covid-19 tests in some counties hovers nearly 100%, in part due to limited testing, according to state data.

The intensive care unit at Cayetano Heredia Hospital in Piura, overwhelmed when the pandemic hit Peru in March, is full again, said Dr. Walter Cruz, emergency room physician. “There is a significant rise, we are really at the beginning of a second wave,” he said.

—Ryan Dube in Lima, Peru, and Kejal Vyas in Bogotá, Colombia, contributed to this article.

Write to Juan Montes at [email protected] and Samantha Pearson at [email protected]