COVID cases soar in the Americas as vaccination rates lag: PAHO

The Pan American Health Organization said Americas should prioritise vaccines for pregnant and lactating women.

Amid lagging vaccination rates, new COVID-19 infections in the Americas are nearly double the rate they were at the same time last year, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) says. In a weekly virtual news briefing on Wednesday, PAHO Director Carissa Etienne said only 28 percent of people in Latin America and the Caribbean have been fully vaccinated so far, largely due to limited supplies. “While we should celebrate that Canada, Chile, and Uruguay have fully over two-thirds of their populations,” Etienne said, “we cannot forget that one-fourth of countries in our region have yet to vaccinate 20 percent of their people – and in some places, coverage is much lower.”