The World Health Organization, WHO, announced Wednesday that new cases of Covid-19 infection have dropped worldwide.

Overall, the decline was 9%. The number of deaths stayed the same.

The Pan American Health Organization, recorded a 12% drop in new cases. The region had 1.2 million newly infected and 24,000 Covid-19 related deaths.

PAHO's director-general, Clarisse Etienne, said that although the continent is following the downward trend, there are still outbreaks of the disease in some countries.  

Etienne cited Chile, Cuba, and Bermuda and emphasized Barbados, where the number of infections rose by 75% last week. Mexico and Canada also had more cases in recent days. 

According to Etienne, in Latin America and the Caribbean only 37% of the population is fully immunized.

The PAHO representative also said that countries like Jamaica, Nicaragua and Haiti have an immunization level below 10%.

Etienne said that only 7 nations in the Americas have reached the goal of immunizing 70% of their population. The United States and Brazil had the highest number of doses applied, but remain below the mark, proportionally to the number of inhabitants.

He also reinforced the need for joint commitment to actions to reduce the gap. In this sense, he announced an agreement between PAHO and three producers of authorized immunizers: Sinovac, Sinopharm, and AstraZeneca. 

Source: UN News