MONTEVIDEO: Latin America and the Caribbean passed one million coronavirus deaths on Friday as the IMF proposed a $50 billion plan to end the pandemic, aiming to expand global immunization drives.
Since the coronavirus was first detected in Latin America in Sao Paulo in late February 2020, AFP has recorded over 1,001,400 fatalities — almost 30 percent of the global total — and more than 31.5 million cases.
Nearly 90 percent of those deaths have been recorded in just five countries: Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Peru.
Latin America suffers from a lack of access to vaccines and necessary medical supplies, and has only finished immunizing three percent of its population, according to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
Globally, the real number of dead from the pandemic was “at least two to three times higher than officially reported,” Samira Asma, the World Health Organization’s assistant director-general in charge of data told reporters.
In Washington, the International Monetary Fund proposed a $50 billion recovery plan with the aim of having at least 60 percent of the world’s population vaccinated by the end of 2022.
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