Long lines at testing centers, cancellation of New Year’s parties and the reappearance of the open-air mask account for the impact of the omicron variant in Latin America, where more and more countries exceed their record of new daily infections since the beginning of the pandemic.
The Pan American Health Organization warned this week that although the variant is less aggressive than its predecessors, the increase in its circulation in several countries in the region “together with greater personal contact due to the holiday and vacation season can cause a increase in cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the coming weeks ”.
However, most governments do not seem willing to reinstate the quarantines that seriously affected their economies – according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) regional GDP fell 6.8% in 2020 – and mental health of their populations. Especially those in the southern hemisphere, where the summer break heralds a peak resort season after two years.
On the contrary, they have implemented health passes to promote vaccination and even some governments shortened the isolation periods of vaccinated people infected or who have been in close contact with a positive case with the aim that the new wave does not get in the way. Economic recovery.
This is the case of Argentina, which this week exceeded 50,000 daily cases for the first time since the start of the pandemic on the eve of the New Year, when millions of people mobilized throughout the country to reunite with their families or start their vacations.
“The dynamics of exponential growth is explained by the omicron variant,” said Argentine Health Minister Carla Vizzotti. “At this moment this variant is not generating an increase in hospitalizations and deaths … the economic impact will not be a quarantine but the isolation of many people who will not be able to work. This variant is different from the delta (riskier and that prevailed until now) and the actions that we must also take ”.
The Argentine government, which in 2020 imposed one of the longest lockdowns in the world, reduced the isolation of close contacts of positive cases that are asymptomatic and have the full vaccination scheme from ten to five days. In turn, those infected who are immunized must remain isolated for seven days instead of the ten previously required.
Vizzotti did not rule out in the future copying the model of neighboring Uruguay, which no longer considers the isolation of vaccinated people who had close contact with infected people mandatory, despite the fact that there, too, cases are increasing.
From January 1, Argentina will require those over 13 years of age a health pass to enter discos, party halls, events with more than 1,000 people in open spaces and group trips.
The country has 73.5% of its population vaccinated with two doses, but it is worrying that 1.5 million people, mostly young people, have not been inoculated.
“It is true that there is a dissociation between the numbers of cases and the health impact. The problem is that if the number continues to increase, and it is going to pass, the health impact will not be as reassuring as it is now, it will become more difficult, especially with people who have not been vaccinated or with a dose, “the doctor warned. Luis Cámera, who is a member of the advisory committee of Argentine President Alberto Fernández.
Bolivia quintupled daily cases in the last five days to 6,149, the peak of the entire pandemic. The health authorities have not confirmed the presence of omicron in the country, although “the number of infections makes us think that it may already be there”, admitted the doctor Wilfredo Anzoátegui, president of the Medical College of Santa Cruz, the most populated region of the country and which accounts for 71% of new cases.
In the Andean country, only 38% of the population is fully vaccinated, which combined with a relaxation in prevention measures is generating a greater demand for the health system. “The medical staff is diminished by contagions. In this region there are 142 intensive care beds, 98% are occupied, ”warned Anzoátegui.
The government of Luis Arce canceled the New Year’s Eve parties and issued a decree that requires showing the vaccination certificate before entering public and private places where there is an agglomeration of people since January 1.
“People are very careless, they are thinking more about the New Year holidays. The authorities do not enforce the measures. I have lost a relative (due to COVID) and that is why I have brought my daughter (8 years old) to vaccinate her, ”said Rosmery, a 31-year-old mother, as she stood in line at a vaccination post in La Paz.
PAHO also warned about the increase in cases in Ecuador, Colombia and Peru.
Ecuador, the first country in Latin America to impose mandatory vaccination and which has more than half of its population with two doses, suspended the return to classes and limited the capacity between 75% and 50% in public entities and places of discharge concurrence such as restaurants, churches and cinemas. In addition, the traditional New Year’s Eve puppet burning was suspended and mass events such as processions and popular dances and the opening of bars and discos were prohibited.
Colombians, on the other hand, will celebrate the arrival of 2022 without capacity and it is expected that colleges and universities will fully return to the presence. The government has focused on promoting vaccination, since only 28% of the population has the complete scheme.
“Now I am a little more relaxed than at other times of the pandemic because I already have two doses of the vaccine,” Colombian Juan Espinosa, 46, told AP. “Although with the arrival of omicron we have to take better care of ourselves because we do not know what reaction the body has even if we are vaccinated,” he added.
Peru, for its part, banned the use of beaches, lakes, rivers, lagoons and public swimming pools as a measure to avoid contagion on December 31 and January 1.
Angélica del Águila, a seller of yellow clothes that Peruvians buy to bring luck in the New Year, said she is uncertain about the effects of the virus on the economy and education despite the fact that 65% of her compatriots have two doses.
“I don’t think there are so many deaths from coronavirus because many Peruvians are getting vaccinated, but I am concerned that the prices of products will continue to rise during the pandemic,” said the 36-year-old woman and mother of four children. “My children have not gone to school for two years and it is not known if now with the arrival of the omicron the schools will reopen in March,” he said.
Mexico and Brazil, which have registered high levels of mortality with the previous variants of COVID-19, have so far not reported an escalation of cases per omicron.
In Mexico City, the epicenter of the pandemic in the country, they insist that the increase in positives has not been accompanied by greater hospitalizations. But in order to avoid large crowds, the authorities closed the Christmas festival that had opened in the Zócalo and canceled the New Year’s concert.
Meanwhile, in the streets and beaches of Mexico, life seems to go on as if nothing had happened, although with face masks as a distinctive element.
“It scares me, but not like before, the vaccine does give peace of mind,” explained Erika Severino, 43, by phone from the port of Acapulco, where after unfortunate months she tries to rest. In the spring of 2020, she lost her mother, brother and husband to COVID-19 in less than two months. “We learned what that was with three strokes,” he recalled while complaining that “public places no longer have the same measures as before and people trust themselves.”
Brazil, which exceeded 600,000 deaths from coronavirus, maintains a downward trend in new cases, according to PAHO, although omicron is already circulating in several states.
In Chile, one of the countries with the highest vaccination rate – 93% of adults completed the scheme – infections are kept under control, with a daily average of 1,150 cases. But the government is concerned about what is happening in neighboring Argentina and Bolivia, which is why it postponed the reopening of five land border crossings, two in the north and three in the south, scheduled for January 4.
At the same time, to encourage the inoculation of about 1.6 million laggards who do not have the third dose, the authorities ordered that their mobility passes, necessary for almost all public activities, will be blocked from January 1.
In Cuba, the arrival of omicron and the speed of its spread forced the authorities to increase sanitary control measures, especially of international travelers, imposing the presentation of a complete vaccination passport and a negative PCR result from 5 of January.
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