High temperatures 🌡 and air pollution have led to a rise in cardiovascular and respiratory 🫁 diseases.
The health of our planet 🌎 and the health of our people are interlinked.
Around the world, more than 12 million deaths 💀 every year are associated with environmental risk factors.
Today, as leaders around the world head to Glasgow for the #COP26 conference, I want to talk about the biggest long-term threat to our public health ➡️ climate change.
And deliveries are expected to pick up in these final months of the year so we can continue to address one of the biggest challenges affecting our region 👉🏽 vaccine inequity.
But the good news is that over 3️⃣ million more doses 📦 will arrive in our region through COVAX this week
In Guatemala, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica, Nicaragua, and Haiti – less than 20% of people have been fully vaccinated 💉
And while our region has done a great job at accelerating immunization coverage 💉 over just a few months, more than half of people 👩🏽🦱👩🏼🦳👵🏿🧓🏾👨🏻🦱 in Latin America and the Caribbean remain unprotected.
Thanks in large part to vaccine donations 📦, made bilaterally or through COVAX, today, twice as many people in Latin America and the Caribbean are fully vaccinated 💉 against COVID than in August of this year.
Today, nearly 44% of people in Latin America and the Caribbean 🌎 have completed their COVID immunization 💉 course.
That’s why it’s critical that countries continue to implement public health measures like mask wearing, social distancing, and limiting large gatherings to bring these 🦠 under control – especially as many countries are still struggling to expand 💉 coverage
