Covid-19 vaccine is ineffective to curb infection rates in South America.
QUICK FACTS:
- About two-thirds of South America’s roughly 435 million residents are fully immunized, the highest percentage for any global region, according to Our World in Data, The Associated Press (AP) reports.
- “But the omicron variant is defying vaccines, sending case numbers surging,” AP goes on to say.
- “Argentina saw an average 112,000 daily confirmed cases in the week through Jan. 16, up from 3,700 a month earlier.”
- “Brazil’s health ministry is still recovering from a hack that left coronavirus data incomplete; even so, it shows a jump to an average 69,000 daily cases in the same seven-day period, up 1,900% from the month before.”
- “Chile has seen a constant increase in its number of cases,” and “Peru has also seen case its numbers rise.”
VACCINATION RATES PER COUNTRY:
- Argentina’s population is 86% vaccinated, 74.4% fully, according to Google data.
- Brazil is 78.6% vaccinated, 68.8% fully (here).
- Bolivia is 54.8% vaccinated, 42% fully (here).
- Chile has “administered at least 45,631,785 doses of COVID vaccines so far. Assuming every person needs 2 doses, that’s enough to have vaccinated about 120.4% of the country’s population,” according to Reuters.
- Peru has “administered at least 52,286,639 doses of COVID vaccines so far. Assuming every person needs 2 doses, that’s enough to have vaccinated about 80.4% of the country’s population,” Reuters reports elsewhere.
BACKGROUND:
- Early studies show omicron is less likely to cause serious diseases than the delta variant, AP notes.
- U.S. nursing homes boast an 87% full vaccination rate but are nevertheless seeing a rise in Covid-19 deaths and cases.
