Latin America, Caribbean COVID-19 Cases Rise to More Than 11 Million

By Mary Anne R. First Posted: Oct 29, 2020 06:38 AM EDT

The number of COVID-19 cases in Latin America and the Caribbean has exceeded 11 million on Wednesday as some countries continue to struggle with new spikes and containing the disease.

The region, with 11,023,000 coronavirus cases and 395,000 deaths, leads the world with a quarter of all global infections and a third of all fatalities, according to an Anadolu Agency report.

In Venezuela, President Nicholas Maduro said on Wednesday that he hopes that by April the country will be able to procure vaccine doses from Russia and China. He added that he hopes to start the massive vaccination against COVID-19 in the country.

In early October, Venezuela received the first batch of the Russian vaccines as part of the phase three clinical trial.

The government said that 2,000 volunteer participants will be joining in the clinical trial of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine.

"We are in talks with the Russian and the Chinese governments because I have a lot of faith that in the first quarter of 2021, we will be able to buy or produce millions of vaccines in our laboratories together with Russia and China," Maduro said in the Anadolu Agency report.

Maduro added that the first in line to receive the vaccine will be doctors and nurses.

The country has a total of 90,400 cases and 780 deaths, according to official data. However, this was highly disputed by the country's opposition.

In Peru, a total of 892,497 coronavirus cases have been recorded, with 34,257 deaths. It has been one of the worst-hit countries in the world by the COVID-19.

Health regulator in Brazil, Anvisa, announced on Wednesday that it has already allowed the import of materials from China company Sinovac for the production of its COVID-19 vaccine.

The announcement came after Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said his government will not buy a China-made vaccine.

The country plans to produce the vaccine with Sao Paulo's biomedical institute Butantan. Bolsonaro earlier tested positive for COVID-19.

The country has about 5.5 million cases of the virus and a total of 157, 946 deaths based on a Johns Hopkins University data.

In Mexico, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has lashed out at European countries on Wednesday for adopting strict lockdown measures to stop the spread of the pandemic.

When asked if Mexico would adopt stricter measures, Obrador responded and said: "What it expresses is an authoritarian urge by the authorities, by the government, with all due respect, on the part of those who opt for this." He added that curfews are not a sign of faith in people.

Obrador said that it is putting yourself above as authority and seeing citizens as children, like they do not understand.

Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General, said the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the deepest recession in the history of Latin America and Caribbean.

Guterres spoke on this during the 38th Session of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

He noted that the region now has over 44 million unemployed people, according to a Plenglish report.

The UN Secretary-General added that more than 45 million people are living in poverty and about 28 million in abject poverty.

Globally, more than 44 million COVID-19 cases are recorded, with 2.8 million recoveries, and 1.17 million deaths. The United States ranked first, followed by India and Brazil.