stluciatimes, caribbean, caribbeannews, stlucia, saintlucia, stlucianews, saintlucianews, stluciatimesnews, saintluciatimes, stlucianewsonline, saintlucianewsonline, st lucia news online, stlucia news online, loop news, loopnewsbarbados

PAHO Official Says Surveillance, Vaccination Key To Ending Americas COVID-19 Pandemic

As the COVID-19 pandemic enters its third year in the Region of the Americas, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director, Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, has called on countries to strengthen surveillance and bridge gaps in vaccination coverage to end the emergency and better prepare for future health crises.

Over the past three years, the Americas had over 190.3 million COVID-19 cases and over 2.9 million deaths, accounting for 25% and 43% of the global total respectively.

“The pandemic underscored that no country or organization in the world was fully prepared for the impact of this pandemic,” Dr Barbosa said during a media briefing today. This includes the Americas, which is a region “marked by inequities.”

Today, incidence rates are 20-30 times lower than a year ago, but “while we are not totally out of the woods, we are in a much better place,” he added.

The PAHO Director highlighted the key role PAHO played in helping countries get to this place.

This includes building and strengthening the COVID-19 Genomic Surveillance Regional Network, which is key to tracking the evolution of the virus, as well as monitoring for other pathogens with pandemic potential, including avian flu.

Over the past three years, the network has facilitated the uploading of more than 580,000 sequences from Latin America and the Caribbean into global databases.

Dr. Barbosa also highlighted the role PAHO played in getting COVID-19 vaccine shots into arms “mobilizing over 160 million doses through COVAX and helping the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean roll out more than 1.3 billion vaccine doses in less than two years.”

Despite these achievements, Dr. Barbosa warned that “COVID-19 is still with us and the virus has yet to settle into a predictable pattern.”

“Throughout the last month, we have seen more than 1.5 million new cases and 17,000 deaths,” the PAHO Director said. “We cannot be complacent.”

Dr. Barbosa warned that while testing rates have dropped, it is crucial that countries maintain and continue to strengthen surveillance as the SARS-CoV-2 virus “can evolve and adapt quickly”.

Reaching the 30% of people who have yet to receive their COVID-19 primary series of COVID-19 vaccine, is also key to “preparing ourselves for any new wave of infection or new variant of concern.”

While the Region has experienced a variety of setbacks throughout the pandemic that have “revealed or exacerbated weaknesses in our health systems”, including in the detection and treatment of diseases such as TB and HIV, in the testing and treatment of non-communicable diseases; and in declining rates for routine vaccination, we now have a unique opportunity to “place health at the center of the Sustainable Development Agenda.”

“We must focus on recovering losses and on rebuilding resilient health systems that work for everyone, as well as being better prepared for future health threats,” the PAHO Director said.

“As I begin my tenure, a primary focus is to help countries of the Americas move past the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“PAHO stands ready to support our countries in the Americas, to learn from and apply the lessons we have learned from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

SOURCE: Pan American Health Organization

Any third-party or user posts, comments, replies, and third-party entries published on the St. Lucia Times website (https://stluciatimes.com) in no way convey the thoughts, sentiments or intents of St. Lucia Times, the author of any said article or post, the website, or the business. St. Lucia Times is not responsible or liable for, and does not endorse, any comments or replies posted by users and third parties, and especially the content therein and whether it is accurate. St. Lucia Times reserves the right to remove, screen, edit, or reinstate content posted by third parties on this website or any other online platform owned by St. Lucia Times (this includes the said user posts, comments, replies, and third-party entries) at our sole discretion for any reason or no reason, and without notice to you, or any user. For example, we may remove a comment or reply if we believe it violates any part of the St. Lucia Criminal Code, particularly section 313 which pertains to the offence of Libel. Except as required by law, we have no obligation to retain or provide you with copies of any content you as a user may post, or any other post or reply made by any third-party on this website or any other online platform owned by St. Lucia Times. All third-parties and users agree that this is a public forum, and we do not guarantee any confidentiality with respect to any content you as a user may post, or any other post or reply made by any third-party on this website. Any posts made and information disclosed by you is at your own risk.

4 COMMENTS

  1. These people are truly Pure Evil. It has been established that the vaccines have had no effect against Covid but these fools are still trying to push their us to take their poison. Millions around the world are now dying from vaccine injuries and other medical complications due to the vaccines such as myocarditis but the fools are still trying to get us to take the kill shots. We will take our chances and depend on the thing which they claimed didn’t exist – natural immunity. So tell them go to hell!!! I hope the day will come when these people will be tried, convicted and punished severely for the harm done to us.

  2. Clearly Jarbas Barbosa is a moron. It has long been known that these shots do absolutely nothing to stop spread of covid. Do nothing to stop its severity. And introduce you to all sorts of risks. Without these shots I have a 99.9% chance of surviving covid and 100% chance of not getting myocarditis from it. With these shots I have a 100% chance of getting some adverse reaction including clots and death and 99.9% chance of surviving covid. DO THE MATH>

  3. Greener Health is the key to ending Covid. If most of us were not praying and drinking our herbal teas (natural medicines), we would have been dead already. Saint Lucians, and all Caribbean stand up for your “roots.”

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

TRENDING

Subscribe to our St. Lucia Times Newsletter

Get our headlines emailed to you every day.

Share via
Send this to a friend