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Health systems across the region are feeling the strain of a rapid rise in cases and hospitalisations linked to Omicron. New COVID-19 infections in the Americas have reached their highest level since the pandemic began, health officials said, as the highly contagious Omicron variant is now the predominant strain in the region. During a weekly virtual news briefing on Wednesday, …

COVID cases rise again in US amid lagging vaccination rates

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Hospitals are being stretched to their limits amid a rise in cases while Haiti has not yet received any vaccine doses. The upwards trend could prove “catastrophic”, said Laure Adrien, general director of Haiti’s Health Ministry. Lack of vaccines Meanwhile, Haiti has yet to receive a single coronavirus vaccine, though officials say they expect to get 130,000 AstraZeneca doses this …

The Pan American Health Organization blamed the region’s leaders for an ineffective response to the pandemic. Coronavirus infections are back on the rise in much of the Americas region after weeks of plateauing and decreasing in figures, the Pan American Health Organization said on Wednesday. While the United States, Canada and Mexico are reporting an overall decline in cases and …

Amid a limited supply of vaccines, COVID-19 cases have been on the rise across the Americas, PAHO officials said. “We have received some information from Mexico, Argentina and Brazil that some doses have been offered through social media, illegal markets offering vaccines that probably are falsified,” Jarbas Barbosa, assistant director of PAHO said during a weekly news conference. “Because unreliable …

Officials said the new Brazil variant, as well as two others, have spread to 20 countries in the Americas. “Last week, over 1.8 million people in the Americas became sick with COVID-19 and more than 47,000 died as a result,” PAHO Director Carissa Etienne said in a briefing. “Nearly every country in South America has reported a rise in COVID-19 …