PAHO Encourages Countries To Maintain COVID-19 Safeguards

(Jamaica Information Service Press Release) Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director, Dr. Carissa Etienne, is urging member countries to maintain coronavirus (COVID-19) protocols and safeguards, even as vaccinations get under way in a number of territories.

Speaking during PAHO’s recent COVID-19 digital briefing, Dr. Etienne said that maintaining the measures is imperative, particularly against the background of increases in infections and deaths in several countries and especially in light of the upcoming Easter holidays, traditionally marked by heightened activities.

While acknowledging that cases were plateauing and declining in some regional states, Dr. Etienne voiced concern that they were spiralling upwards in others.

She described the latter scenario as an “active public health emergency” which indicates that “the COVID-19 virus is not receding, nor is the pandemic starting to go away”.

The Director said that while the deployment of vaccines through the World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) Facility is under way, and all participating countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are expected to receive their first shipments by early April, those allocations are not adequate to protect the vulnerable groups being initially targeted.

Read more at: Jamaica Information Service

Source: CARICOM TODAY