Latin America’s perilous wave
Latin America is experiencing a surge of cases that rivals the worst of the summer.
In Mexico, the resurgence of the virus has infected more people than ever, including the country’s president, and hospitals are so full that many infected patients have been forced to recuperate at home.
In Bolivia, intensive-care units are full and bodies are piling up in homes and on the streets, much as they did last summer.
In Brazil, deaths have matched their summer peak as a powerful new variant spreads throughout the surrounding region.
Brazil and Mexico now have the second- and third-highest death totals in the world — higher even than in India, which has more than six times the population of Brazil and 10 times the population of Mexico.
Mexico is suffering from a severe shortage of oxygen tanks, which has led to a thriving black market. Organized criminal groups have been hijacking trucks filled with oxygen tanks, or stealing them at gunpoint from hospitals, according to media reports.
The smallest tank in Mexico can cost more than $800 — up to 10 times the price in the United States — and filling up a tank with six hours of oxygen can cost about $10.
My colleagues Natalie Kitroeff and Oscar Lopez, who cover Mexico for The Times, have described long lines that stretch for blocks where people wait to refill tanks for their relatives. One man they spoke to recalled the desperate pleas he heard in the long lines now common across Mexico City: “My father is at 60 percent oxygen saturation. My brother is at 50 percent saturation. My wife can no longer breathe. She’s turning blue, her lips are blue, help me.”
In Bolivia, experts believe the higher mortality rate may be caused by the more contagious variants originating in Brazil and elsewhere, but they lack the instruments to analyze the viruses’ genetic code.
The virus bounced back in the region because officials — citing pandemic fatigue and concerns about the economy — have been resistant to restore the containment measures that curbed the virus during previous waves. Before the latest outbreak in Mexico City, the authorities delayed shutting down nonessential businesses for weeks, in spite of soaring case rates. Officials eventually tightened restrictions, but many Mexicans defied government pleas to stay home during the holidays.
Officials in Latin America are also pointing to vaccination campaigns as a reason to avoid lockdowns, even though few countries in the region outside of Brazil have procured a meaningful number of doses.
The New York Times