SHOTLIST:
1. Various of older adults in Buenos Aires
2. Various of vaccinations for older adults in Buenos Aires
3. Various of people in theaters in Buenos Aires
4. Various of temperature controls in theaters
5. Various of test centers
6. Various of health centers
7. Various of vaccination in Latin America
8. Various of vaccination centers
9. Various vaccination to older adults
STORYLINE:
The Brazilian P.1 variant of Covid-19, which packs a suite of mutations that make it more transmissible and potentially more dangerous, it has been carried across rivers and over borders in South America in recent weeks, evading restrictive measures meant to curb its advance across the continent.
In Lima, scientists have detected the variant in 40 percent of coronavirus cases. In Uruguay, it’s been found in 30 percent. In Paraguay, officials say half of cases at the border with Brazil are P.1. Other South American countries — Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, Chile — have discovered it in their territories.
Limitations in genomic sequencing have made it difficult to know the true breadth of the variant’s spread, but it has been identified in more than two dozen countries, from Japan to the United States.
In turn, hospital systems across South America are at their limits: Uruguay, one of South America’s wealthiest nations and a success early in the pandemic, is barreling toward a medical system failure; health officials say Peru had only 84 intensive care beds left at the end of March; the intensive care system in Paraguay, roiled by protests last month over medical shortcomings, has run out of hospital beds.
The Brazilian city of Tabatinga, in the Amazon rainforest, where officials suspect the virus crossed into Colombia and Peru, has 70,000 of population and was swept by P.1 earlier this year. Many in the area have family ties in several countries and are accustomed to crossing borders with ease — canoeing across the Amazon River to Peru or walking into Colombia.
Most South American countries, with the exception of Brazil, adopted stringent containment measures last year. With national economies battered and poverty rising, public health experts fear more restrictions will be difficult to maintain. In Brazil, despite record death numbers, many states are lifting restrictions.
South America it’s one of the world’s hardest-hit regions but has administered only 6 percent of the world’s vaccine doses, according to the site Our World in Data. The exception is Chile, which is vaccinating residents more quickly than anywhere in the Americas — but still suffering a surge in cases.