Coronavirus: more than 100,000 dead in Latin America and the Caribbean

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The toll of the Covid-19 epidemic exceeded 100,000 deaths in Latin America and the Caribbean this Tuesday, June 23, more than half of them in Brazil, according to a count by AFP based on official data. More than 2.1 million cases of contamination have been identified in the region since the start of the pandemic, with Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Chile being the countries hardest hit.

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As the epidemic recedes in Europe and Asia, Latin America has seen the number of Covid-19 cases increase alarmingly. The number of people infected has doubled in less than a month and now stands at nearly 2.2 million.

The actual scale of damage from the coronavirus in the region is likely to be much greater, experts say, as South American countries have failed to put in place rigorous testing programs. Many officials recognize that the death toll is likely to be much higher.

In addition to weak health systems in many countries in the region, the fight against the coronavirus has been hampered by widespread poverty and the fact that many workers live in the informal sector on a daily basis, which has undermined quarantine efforts.

The most affected country, Brazil has 1,145,906 confirmed cases and 52,645 deaths. After him, Mexico recorded Tuesday 6,288 new infections and
793 additional deaths. The virus is also present in Central America, Guatemala having reported Tuesday of more than 700 new cases and 35 deaths in the last twenty-four hours.

• Brazil: alarming situation in full deconfinement

The second most affected country in terms of death after the United States, Brazil has now passed the 50,000 mark due to Covid-19. But despite the situation, the governors and mayors of the big cities continue to relax measures of social isolation. Last week, the city of Rio de Janeiro recorded a 52% increase in cases. Experts say the scenario is grim.

Coronavirus in Brazil: alarming situation after premature deconfinement

Sarah Cozzolino

In addition, the Brazilian federal justice decided: it obliges the president Jair Bolsonaro to use a mask in the public space of the federal district, under penalty of fine.

• Peru: more than 200 police officers killed by the virus

More than 200 Peruvian police officers died from the coronavirus and more than 15,000 were contaminated while trying to enforce confinement in this country among the most affected in Latin America, the Interior Minister announced on Tuesday.

The Peru has exceeded the threshold of 260 000 cases of contamination to the hundredth day of his confinement on Tuesday. The country has also received a donation of 250 respirators from the United States.

• Colombia extends quarantine

The growing epidemic is prompting some countries to strengthen or maintain their preventive measures. The British has decided on Tuesday to extend until 15 July confinement in force in the country since late March. Colombia has recorded 73,500 cases and 2,404 deaths.

• Haiti: decrease in the number of contaminations

If Latin America is now the epicenter of the Covid 19 pandemic, the virulence of the virus is not equal in all countries. In Haiti, epidemiologists note a reduction in the number of cases in the capital without the health structures ever being overwhelmed. This was noted by our correspondent Amélie Baron, who visited the Haitian Olympic Center on Tuesday, converted into a hospital totally dedicated to the fight against coronavirus.

Report in Port-au-Prince, at the Olympic Center converted into a Covid-19 center

Amélie Baron

• Honduras faces catastrophic spread

Overwhelmed, helpless, Honduras can no longer follow. A shining symbol of this helplessness, the hospitalization of the Honduran president in person, Juan Orlando Hernandez, tested positive for coronavirus last week. He says it himself, the health system is creaking and it can only get worse because the peak of the epidemic is not yet reached.

Officially, there are 10,000 cases and 300 deaths from Covid-19 across the country, but funeral directors say that these numbers must be multiplied by five to get a realistic idea of ​​the extent of the disaster.

In poor neighborhoods, victims of the disease do not have access to care and die at home without any medical assistance, without being taken into account in the overall calculation of contamination.

Casket makers say their sales have increased 80% in the past few days, bodies are piling up, mortuaries are no longer working, and caregivers are affected too. To date, the coronavirus has overtaken Honduras' very scarce resources.

Hospitals are overwhelmed.

Nora Maradiaga, director of the National Heart and Pulmonary Institute of Tegucigalpa in Honduras

Our selection on the coronavirus

• Listen to our Coronavirus Info column 

• Our  explanations  :
→  What we know about the mode of contagion
→  Disparities and inequalities in the face of the coronavirus
→  Triple therapy, Discovery… update on research
→  Remdesivir, antibodies and immunity
→  The race for the vaccine is in full swing
→  How to make a mask and use it well

• Our series  :
→ “  The response, country by country  ”
→ “  Nurses  ' words ”

• After Covid-19, towards a new world?

• See also the files of RFI Savoirs on the Covid-19:
→  Birth of a pandemic
→  Everyday life put to the test
→  The history of epidemics
→  Science facing the Covid-19
→  The geopolitical consequences

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• Coronavirus
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