🌎 Only 14 countries achieved coverage of 70% of their populations with completed vaccine schedules.
🌎 In Latin America and the Caribbean, about 248 million people have yet to receive their first dose of the vaccine 🩹, and these gaps are concentrated in harder to reach, rural areas or underserved areas.
🌎 We must also be prepared to tighten public health guidance if cases go back up ⬆️
When places relax measures at the wrong moment, transmission spikes 📈 dangerously and we lose more lives.
🌎 #COVID19 is likely to be here to stay. We must learn to live with this 🦠, and quickly adapt to new changes.
We can do that by keeping our finger on the pulse of the pandemic, and adjusting public health guidance any time there is a risk of increased transmission. @DirOPSPAHO twitter.com/pahowho/status…
🌎 Health care workers 👩🏽⚕️🧑🏾⚕️ now know the best kind of care to provide to COVID patients, and we have better treatment options.
And we know that masking, physical distancing and other public health measures work well to slow the spread of the virus.
🌎 We can acknowledge some gains in our fight against this virus 🦠
When we started, we didn’t know much about COVID-19.
But now, we have safe vaccines 🩹that protect us from the most severe disease and are saving countless lives.
🌎 Omicron is still around, and this pandemic is unpredictable.
We must build on lessons from the past 2️⃣ years to prepare for quick action if a new variant emerges or outbreaks happen among those who remain vulnerable.
🌎 We all want the pandemic to be over, but optimism alone cannot control the virus 🦠
It is too soon to lower our guard.
Public health measures are being left behind in many parts of our region.
🌎 A recent WHO report shows staggering numbers on the mental health impact: rates of depression and anxiety shot up ⬆️ by 25% around the world, heavily impacting women and young people.
🌎 And as health systems 🏥 were overwhelmed by COVID-19 surges, countries in the Americas reported more disruptions to essential health services than other global regions.
