Central America suffers a new pandemic wave and demands more vaccines

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Half of Central American countries face a new wave of Covid-19, with a record number of people in ICUs in Costa Rica and a growing number of infections in Guatemala and Honduras while the whole isthmus is clamoring for equitable and faster access to vaccines.

In the other half of the region, the situation seems to be calmer: Panama speaks of a “control” of the pandemic after a “second wave” at the end of 2020; El Salvador highlights a “stability” of infections, while Nicaragua shows meager numbers of cases and deaths that are refuted by a network of volunteer doctors who draw a more serious scenario.

These six Spanish-speaking Central American countries (without English-speaking Belize), with some 48.5 million inhabitants, high levels of poverty, and historically deficient health systems, have accumulated nearly 1.1 million confirmed cases of covid and 23,450 deaths in just over a year of the pandemic, according to official data.

NEW WAVE OF CONTAGIONS

With 5 million inhabitants and an accumulated 233,498 cases of Covid-19 and 3,115 deaths, Costa Rica had 277 of the total 316 intensive care unit (ICU) beds occupied as of Wednesday, the highest number since the pandemic began, amid a sharp increase in infections.

Guatemala, a country of 16.3 million people and a cumulative 216,329 confirmed infections and 7,309 deaths – the highest death toll in the region – declared a red alert in its hospital network due to an increase in cases that have overwhelmed temporary hospitals.

Honduras, with 9.5 million inhabitants, more than 202,000 confirmed infections, and 4,976 deaths, is living a serious situation, according to public and private medical sources, since only so far in 2021 the cases total 76,856 and the deaths 1,742, figures that show a dangerous upward trend that raises fears of new closures and confinements.

Panama, with 4.2 million inhabitants and 361,678 accumulated cases and 6,196 deaths, now exhibits “a control” of the pandemic after the “second wave” that the country suffered at the end of 2020 and that led to new confinements and restrictions this year, the director of the Metropolitan Health Region, Israel Cedeño, told Efe.

El Salvador, with some 6 million inhabitants, accumulates 67,557 confirmed infections and 2,082 deaths. The head of the Ministry of Health, Francisco Alabí, said this week that in the country there is a “stability” of infections of between 130 and 174 cases per day and “a reduction in lethalities” and 70% availability of hospital beds.

Several Central American leaders took advantage of the XXVII Ibero-American Summit held this Wednesday in Andorra to ask for equitable access to vaccines, whose absence or arrival in fits and starts jeopardizes the immunization processes in the region.