PAHO warns that recent surge in COVID-19 cases has overburdened struggling systems

“When cases surge exponentially, as they have in the past few weeks, the burden falls mostly on the people that power our health systems,” Dr. Etienne said. “For them, there is nothing mild about this Omicron wave.”

With infections reaching 4.8 million (a 31% drop from last week) but 33,000 new deaths, the PAHO Director said that the region remains in the grip of the latest COVID-19 wave and urged countries to harness the lessons learned from the pandemic so far as clinics and hospitals once again become full.

“Years of underinvestment in our health services, aging information systems and poor labor conditions made our health workers’ jobs challenging,” the Director said, highlighting that these disadvantages were only exacerbated by COVID-19.

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