MONTEVIDEO | More than 700,000 deaths from COVID-19 have been officially recorded in Latin America and the Caribbean since the start of the pandemic in December 2019, according to a count made by AFP on Monday at 8 p.m. from reports provided by health authorities .
• Read also: All the developments of the pandemic
The 34 countries in the region account for 700,022 deaths (for 22,140,444 reported cases), behind Europe (876,511) and ahead of the United States / Canada (547,986) and Asia (259,925).
After a slight lull in the fall, when between 1,500 and 1,700 daily deaths were recorded, the subcontinent experienced an acceleration in contaminations and deaths in December. Since mid-February, the daily death toll in the region has fallen below the 3,000 death mark. Last week, 2,850 deaths were recorded per day on average, an increase of 6% compared to the previous week.
On October 31, Latin America and the Caribbean recorded more than 400,000 deaths in total. December 29, 500,000. While 59 days had passed between these two dates, the pace accelerated and only 35 days passed until February 2, when the total of 600,000 deaths was reached. In the region. Again 35 days later, on March 8, the threshold of 700,000 victims was crossed.
The region is the second continent to reach this threshold, after Europe which crossed it on January 25.
Brazil and Mexico account for two thirds of the deaths in the region. The second most bereaved country in the world after the United States, Brazil has 266,398 deaths for more than 11 million cases. As for Mexico, it has 190,604 for more than 2.1 million identified infections.
Reported to the population, the country most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic is Mexico with 148 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Peru (145) and Panama (137), then Brazil (125) and the Colombia (119).
Globally, nearly 117 million COVID-19 patients have been identified, including nearly 2.26 million deaths since the start of the epidemic in December 2019.