Latin America out of breath in the fight against Covid-19

It is "the new epicenter" of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the WHO. The American continent is now the most affected in the world. While Europe is on the road to slow normalization and deconfinement, Latin America is recording an inexorable progression of the pandemic, with terrible foreseeable consequences in terms of economy and employment.

"South America has become a new epicenter of the disease. We are seeing the number of cases increasing in many South American countries," said the World Health Organization (WHO) emergency manager ), Michael Ryan, during a virtual conference from Geneva.

Brazil, Mexico and Peru are living in alarming situations, concentrating the majority of deaths in Latin America. Chile meanwhile is on the brink of rupture, according to its president, while Ecuador and in particular the city of Guayaquil are slowly recovering.

France 24 provides a non-exhaustive overview of the different situations.

• In Brazil, populism and the pandemic go hand in hand

Brazil, with its 210 million inhabitants, is today the second most affected country in the world, behind the United States, in number of confirmed cases. The number of infections and deaths could however be higher, as the country has been slow to set up screening tests.

And for good reason, the far-right populist president Jair Bolsonaro has been minimizing the epidemic by all means since the start of the crisis. With his supporters, he denounced "the dictatorship of the coronavirus" and put its effects into perspective. During a meeting in the capital Brasilia, he did not hesitate on Sunday to take a walkabout by falling off the mask, shaking hands and even carrying a child on his shoulders.

To protect the population, the local authorities, however, adopted containment measures against the advice of the president.

• In Mexico, a too hasty deconfinement?

Mexico is the second most bereaved country in Latin America with more than 6,000 deaths linked to Covid-19. However, President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador is already thinking about deconfinement and explains at a press conference that "the pandemic has been tamed", allowing "the return to a new normal".

Es la última semana de la jornada de sana distancia. No relajemos las medidas, evitemos contagios. Conferencia matutina. https://t.co/3RnovdtNL7

If he believes that a “healthy distance” between all must be maintained, his government has started to work on deconfinement. Relying on a four-color code, depending on the intensity of the circulation of the virus, he wants to revive economic activity as quickly as possible. This is particularly undermined by the closure of the border with the United States, a trading partner on which the Aztec country is very dependent.

For Guillermo Torre, rector of the faculty of medicine of the Tec University of Monterrey, interviewed by Le Monde, "the campaign of social distancing has made it possible to smooth the epidemiological curve to less saturate the hospitals. But his eagerness (that of the president , Editor's note) to deconfines risks causing a second wave of contagions ", especially since the number of cases would be greatly undervalued in the country.

• Peru struggles

On March 16, when barely 86 cases were officially listed, Peru was the first Latin American country to adopt restrictive measures to try to contain the epidemic. However, nine weeks of confinement later, the figures for contamination explode. Peru is now the second most affected country in Latin America, after Brazil, and the third in number of deaths, after Brazil and Mexico.

A spread, despite the confinement, which is explained by several factors. The first is the fragility of the Peruvian health system. Some 7,500 patients with Covid-19 are hospitalized in Peru. However, due to the lack of protective equipment or the non-observance of health security protocols, the virus has spread among health personnel. At least 635 doctors and 1,200 nurses contracted the disease, and 33 healthcare workers died.

In one of the Peruvian daily newspaper @larepublica_pe, 33 health professionals died from # Covid_19 while fighting against #coronavirus # Peru pic.twitter.com/MJ0ungmHmB

In addition, markets and banks acted as vectors of propagation. By decreeing containment, the government maintained essential economic activities, including the sale of food on the markets. The latter became hotbeds of contamination until the government reacted by shutting them down. Same problem with the banks, where Peruvians crowded en masse to withdraw emergency aid vouchers.

The surge in contamination is also explained by the weight of the informal sector, which represents 70% of the country's activities. Thousands of people have defied containment orders in order to feed their families.

•  In  Chile , saturated hospitals

For the past two weeks, Chile has experienced a very significant increase in contamination, which has prompted the government to decree compulsory confinement for the seven million inhabitants of the capital, Santiago.

President Sebastian Piñera was alarmist when he judged that the national health system was saturated and "very close to its limits". In Santiago, the occupancy rate for intensive care beds is close to 95%.

But the pandemic is not the only problem facing Chile. Unemployment and hunger have exploded in the poorest neighborhoods. In mid-May, residents of Santiago defied compulsory confinement to demonstrate.

Yesterday Monday, supporters of the social movement in Chile projected the word "hungry" on the facade of an emblematic building in Santiago, in support of the demonstrators who demonstrated in the south of the capital because they have nothing to eat. 'to buy food. Answer today 1/2 https://t.co/g6AtfInPjF

In response, the Chilean government has started distributing 2.5 million baskets of food to the poorest families. These distributions, which are estimated to cost $ 100 million, are to take place across Chile for residents who have lost their jobs due to the health crisis. But the situation remains explosive due to a social context already tense before the epidemic.

• In Venezuela, an "contained" epidemic?

According to its president, Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela has managed to "contain" the spread of the coronavirus. The Venezuelan government has recorded ten deaths linked to Covid-19 for 455 detected cases.  

If the heir of Chavismo prides himself on these figures, his main opponent, the self-proclaimed president Juan Guaido, disputes them. The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, also publicly criticized the "lack of Venezuelan transparency". However, WHO and John Hopkins University accept government figures in their statistics.

Nicolas Maduro has extended the confinement of 30 million Venezuelans by one month. A decision that has less to do with health reasons than with a fuel shortage that undermines an unlikely economic recovery, say experts in the region interviewed by AFP.

However, this confinement is now little respected, especially in Caracas, where the population is trying to return to work in order to survive an economic situation that was already badly degraded before the pandemic.

• Ecuador: the first  country  hit to recover slowly

Since the first detection of the coronavirus in the country on February 29, Ecuador has been one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic. More than 3,000 people died and the images of corpses in homes and on the streets shocked the world.

The city of Guayaquil quickly became the epicenter of the pandemic in the country, resulting in the collapse of its health and funeral systems.

To curb the progression of the disease, Ecuador declared a state of emergency in mid-March, suspended courses in educational establishments and work in the company. A 15 hour curfew per day was also imposed.

Guayaquil, however, seems to see the light at the end of the tunnel. After nine weeks of confinement, the city has started the deconfinement phase, with the resumption of certain activities.

• Argentina, Colombia  and  Uruguay remain cautious

This trio of countries for the moment seem to be doing well in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, they prefer to remain cautious, like Argentina where the confinement of the population is extended until June 7. In Colombia, it is extended at least until May 31, while the state of health emergency must last until August 31.

In Uruguay, according to the scientific committee which advises the government, the pandemic is under "relative control". This small country of 3.5 million inhabitants has recorded less than 1,000 cases and only twenty deaths.

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