COVID-19 hitting the Americas hardest —WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday the Americas were bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic at present with North and South America currently having four of the 10 worst-hit countries in the world.

The WHO’s top emergency expert, Mike Ryan, who highlighted the problems in Brazil and Mexico at a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, said the virus was “highly active” in Central and South America.

He said the current situation in Brazil, now one of the global hot-spots for the virus, was of increasing concern, especially in heavily-populated cities.

The WHO official added that the country’s health system was “still coping,” although some intensive care units were at a critical stage and under heavy pressure with more than 90 percent bed occupancy rates.

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Mexico, meanwhile, has nearly 130,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 15,000 deaths, the WHO said.

Brazil is the second worst-hit country in the world, with more than 800,000 cases and 41,000 deaths.

Both countries lag behind the United States, the worst hit country, which has had more than two million cases and nearly 114,000 deaths.

Ryan said: “We are very much in the upswing of this pandemic, particularly in the global South.

“Some countries are having trouble exiting of the so-called lockdowns as they are seeing an increase in cases.

“It was possible the disease was spreading again as societies reopened and people began meeting again, especially when there was inadequate testing and social distancing was insufficient.”

Still, he acknowledged the pressures on countries to get back to normal, especially to reduce the economic damage the crisis has caused.

He added: “There is a careful balance between keeping people at home and the untoward effect of that on economic and society.

“That is not an easy balance; there are no correct answers.”

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