Pandemic set to worsen in Americas

Thursday April 16th, 2020

The Covid-19 pandemic is yet to hit the Americas with "full force," a senior health official warned yesterday as the USA continued to report record numbers of deaths.

The region's countries must maintain social distancing measures and not succumb to pressure to relax them, Dr Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization, said.

Dr Etienne said that growing numbers of countries across the region were reporting community transmission.

Most cases and fatalities in the region have so far been reported in the USA – although Canada and Brazil are also struggling with rapid development of the pandemic.

US states yesterday reported 2,479 new deaths and 30,172 new cases – with New Jersey reporting 351 new deaths. Globally the number of confirmed cases has passed two million.

Dr Etienne said: “Implementing the measures required to stop Covid-19 can be disruptive but failing to do so will risk prolonging this crisis. Interrupting recommended social distancing too early could have the opposite effect – and lead to a second wave of Covid-19 cases, extending suffering and socioeconomic uncertainty over the long term in the Region of the Americas.

“Only by implementing the interventions required for each setting – guided by science and solidarity – can we slow down, and ultimately break, the spread of Covid-19 in our region. And then together, within and across our countries, we can safely get back on our feet.

"Following a period of social distancing, any attempt to transition to more flexible measures should be taken with extreme caution. Such decisions should always be informed by disease transmission patterns, COVID-19 testing and contact tracing capacity, the availability of hospital beds, and other objective criteria.”

* Meanwhile, according to a new survey, some 27% of nurses in Spain have suffered Covid-19 infection. A nursing organisation questioned some 7,500 nurses about symptoms.

Some 35% blamed their infection on lack of protective equipment and 41% on treating undiagnosed patients.

* The World Health Organisation meanwhile dispatched a million masks and other protective equipment to Addis Ababa to provide supplies for African countries against the developing pandemic.

Tags: Africa | Europe | Flu & Viruses | North America

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