Latin America, Asia latest to get hit with omicron surge

San Jose Jan. 22 (BUS): In Costa Rica, officials are encouraging those infected with the coronavirus to skip voting in the upcoming national elections. On the other side of the world, Beijing is shutting down residential communities as the country eagerly awaits the start of the Winter Olympics on February 4, the Associated Press reports.

In Latin America and Asia, where the omicron variant has recently emerged, some countries impose such restrictions while others are loath to place new restrictions on populations already exhausted by previous restrictions.

Omicron quickly swept the places it first hit, such as South Africa, the UK and the US, pushing daily cases much higher than at any time during the pandemic.

The Americas reported nearly 7.2 million new COVID-19 infections and more than 15,000 COVID-related deaths over the past week, the U.S. Health Organization said Wednesday. The Pan American Health Organization said that coronavirus infections across the Americas nearly doubled between January 1 and January 8, from 3.4 million cases to 6.1 million.

Infections are accelerating in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia and Peru, and hospital admissions are increasing in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, said Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization. Etienne noted that the Caribbean islands are witnessing the largest increase in cases of the Covid-19 virus since the beginning of the epidemic.

“Although omicron infection appears to be milder, we continue to urge caution as the virus is spreading more actively than ever before,” Etienne said.

Infections are also increasing in Asia, including the Philippines, which has seen the worst outbreak of the coronavirus in recent weeks.

Countries in both regions are looking for a combination of restrictions that their exhausted populations will accept and that will not do undue damage to their economies.

“We are already going through three years of the epidemic and the population is tired,” said Carlos Lula, president of Brazil’s Health Secretariat. “There is no place for so many restrictions. We will have to confront a third wave with precautions such as concealment, distancing and vaccination.”

Argentina and Mexico have also largely ruled out imposing any national restrictions, instead relying on vaccination campaigns and the less severe symptoms of the omicron variant.

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, having just emerged from a week of isolation after contracting his second coronavirus last year, has played down the threat. “Obviously this alternative is not as serious as it was before, the delta,” Lopez Obrador said this week.

Antonio Perez, 67, runs a small stall in a Mexico City market that sells notebooks, pens and other school supplies. He was forced to close his shop for three months early in the pandemic, taking its toll financially. But he agreed with the government’s decision at the time – at a time when little was known about the spread of the virus and no one had been vaccinated – and with a laissez-faire approach now, when most of the population is vaccinated and the pressure on hospitals is less.

Speaking through his N95 mask, he said immunization, masks and social distancing are the way to go now. “I don’t think you can do anything else.”

Some states in Brazil have reimposed restrictions but have not gone as far as closing businesses as they did last year. However, Peru has revived a nationwide curfew, and Ecuador has banned public and private events or large gatherings of any kind.

In Costa Rica, public health concerns run counter to constitutional guarantees of the February 6 presidential and congressional elections. Authorities admit they can’t stop people from voting, but Eugenia Zamora, the chief electoral officer of the Supreme Court for Elections, recently told news outlets that those who tested positive for coronavirus should “abstain” from going out to vote.

Demographer Luis Rosero said that according to his predictions, a new wave of infections could peak on Election Day. Under current health protocols, those who test positive in Costa Rica are required to isolate.

The total number of daily confirmed infections in Costa Rica has risen from less than 100 in December to more than 5,000 this month. But so far, the government has imposed a few restrictions, such as requiring football clubs to play without fans.

Two other Central American countries, Panama and Honduras, have not imposed any restrictions even though their number of cases has more than doubled over the past week.

Puerto Rico, among the hardest-hit places in the Caribbean amid the region’s current uptick, tightened restrictions again this month after the US mainland saw its COVID-19 test-positive rate rise from 5% late last year to more than 40% in weeks. Last .

Governor Pedro Pierluisi has required workers in the health, food, education, tourism and entertainment sectors to get booster doses, as well as public school students age 12 or older. It also reinstated a ban on alcohol sales from 12 a.m. to 5 a.m. and banned most businesses from working during those hours.

In Chile, infections grew by 151% in one week, but the only restriction imposed by the government so far is to lower the maximum capacity of public spaces. The country has a high vaccination rate, with over 92% of those 18 years of age or older and 78% of minors receiving two doses. The government started providing a fourth dose this month.

However, in some South American countries, the omicron has a severe effect.

A major hospital in Bolivia’s largest city has stopped accepting new patients due to a staff shortage, and one of Brazil’s most populous states has canceled scheduled surgeries for a month. The Argentine Federation of Private Healthcare Providers estimates that about 15% of its workers are currently infected with the virus.

In Asia, South Korea has already eased its restrictions on gatherings slightly this week. But officials have expressed concern about an increase in cases of the Lunar New Year holiday, which begins at the end of the month, when millions of people normally travel across the country to meet with relatives.

In China, Beijing has moved classrooms online and closed some office buildings. Meanwhile, Japan is imposing strict border controls as infections increase, but otherwise it does little more than shorten opening hours for restaurants and bars.

Hong Kong authorities have banned indoor dining after 6pm and ordered some businesses, such as museums and gyms, to close until at least early February. The city is also culling small animals including hamsters and chinchillas and has stopped importing and selling them after several hamsters in a pet store tested positive for the coronavirus.

In the Philippines, officials this week began banning passengers who have not been fully vaccinated from taking public transportation in Metro Manila, a region of more than 13 million people. The move sparked protests from human rights groups. Daily confirmed infections have risen from a few hundred last month to more than 30,000 in recent days.

Roman Catholic Church leaders in the Philippine capital have had to cancel the January 9 procession of the Black Nazarene, a centuries-old black statue of Jesus Christ, for a second year. Since the event is one of Asia’s largest religious festivals, attracting millions of mostly barefoot pilgrims, officials feared it could become super-widespread during the Omicron wave.

President Rodrigo Duterte warned that sometimes the weaker Omicron variant could kill, and he appealed to people to get a full immunization.

“If you are vaccinated, you have a fighting chance. If not, we will bury and fill our graves,” Duterte said in televised remarks.

AOQ