By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

THE Pan American Health Organization is reporting good news for the region with a steady decline in COVID-19 cases and a drop in related deaths.

The news came from Dr Jarbas Barbosa, PAHO’s assistant director, during the organisation’s weekly webinar on COVID-19.

PAHO reports that over the last week, the region has recorded more than 745,000 new COVID-19 infections and just over 18,000 COVID-related deaths. This is the eighth consecutive week that overall cases have declined in the region.

“In North America, all three countries reported drops in weekly cases and deaths, and there has been a notable decline in hospitalisations in the United States and Canada,” Dr Barbosa said. “Consistent with the other parts of the region, cases and deaths are trending downward or remaining stable throughout much of the Caribbean.

“However, Barbados continues to report its highest number of COVID-related infections and deaths since the start of the pandemic, and there are concerning shortages of hospital capacity in the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago.

“There have been similar declines across most countries in Central America. After weeks of a persistent outbreak in Belize, I am pleased to report a nearly 20 percent decrease in cases and a 60 percent decrease in deaths,” he said.

Dr Barbosa said the same downward trends are present in much of South America apart from a few exceptions which are being monitored closely. He turned his attention to vaccinations against COVID-19 and how they are affecting hospitalisations positively. “In all countries that are publishing data about the vaccination status of the hospitalised cases, a very high percentage of those hospitalised have not been immunised against the virus,” Dr Barbosa said. “The progress in our region is not a reason to become complacent or discontinue the public health measures that help keep us safe.

“Quite the opposite. The decline in cases and deaths shows that our approach is working, and it is critical for all of us to stay the course until everyone is vaccinated and protected from the virus.”

To date, 1.2 billion COVID vaccine doses have been administered across the Americas and 46 percent of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean has been fully vaccinated.

Dr Barbosa said at least 32 countries have already reached the WHO’s target of 40 percent vaccination coverage, and several more are on track to reach and surpass it by the end of the year.

He continued, “This progress is encouraging but not surprising, thanks to our region’s strong immunisation systems. However, there are still several countries facing delays and 19 that remain below the 40 percent target.

“PAHO is working closely with all these countries, especially Haiti, Nicaragua, Jamaica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Guatemala, which are still below 20 percent coverage. Vaccine inequity remains the biggest barrier to reaching our coverage targets.”

PAHO is still working on its COVAX programme to assist regional countries to obtain COVID-19 vaccines. He said: “The COVAX Facility, with the support of PAHO’s Revolving Fund, has delivered 63.9 million doses to the region. Roughly 30 percent of these vaccines, over 19 million doses, were donations by the United States, Spain, Canada, and other governments. We are thankful for these donations, which have improved the situation in the Americas.

“We continue to expect allocations of vaccines from COVAX to accelerate in the coming weeks, so we urge countries to monitor their absorptive capacity and to continue to scale up vaccination operations. PAHO is providing technical cooperation to our member states in all relevant aspects to guarantee successful vaccination: communication strategy, training health care workers, adopting new strategies to facilitate the access of the population, and cold chain capacity.”

PAHO is also supporting countries to overcome supply problems with syringes and diluents.

Dr Barbosa said this means PAHO must make investments in immunization capacity and staffing a top priority. And, its investments today will pave the way for a strong recovery after the pandemic.