COVID-19 Surges Among Young People in Latin America

Hospitalizations and deaths among young people are increasing as the COVID-19 pandemic accelerates in the Americas, Dr. Carissa F. Etienne, Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), warned on Wednesday.

"Adults of all ages, including young people, are becoming seriously ill and many of them are dying," said Etienne during PAHO's weekly briefing. PAHO has reported that between December 2020 and March 2021, mortality rates in Brazil doubled among children under 39 years of age, quadrupled for people aged 40 to 50 years old, and tripled for those aged 50 to 60 years old.

"If infections continue to increase at this rate, we expect that in the next three months countries in our region will have to maintain and even further increase their intensive care unit (ICU) bed capacity," she calculated.

Countries need to hire more health care workers and specialized personnel, she said. Meanwhile, current health care workers must be supported "after operating in 'crisis mode' for so long."

In total, more than 1.3 million people were infected with COVID-19 in the Americas in the last week and more than 36,000 died from complications related to the disease.

"Nearly 40% of all COVID-19 deaths reported last week occurred in our region. Today, more Latin American countries than ever are reporting more than 1,000 COVID-19 cases per day," Etienne said.

She reported that infections are increasing rapidly in the Guianas, Argentina, and Colombia, "where weekly case counts are five times higher than this time last year." In Central America, Guatemala is experiencing a significant increase in infections, while Costa Rica is reporting record infections.

According to data from UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency, Latin America and the Caribbean is one of the most affected regions by the pandemic, with increased unemployment rates, and an economic recovery that is losing dynamism due to the unfavorable evolution of the covid pandemic and the uncertainty about the pace of vaccination in the coming months and its effectiveness in the face of outbreaks of more aggressive strains, according to a recent report from the Bank of Spain.