Washington, United States (CMC) – The Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr. Carissa Etienne, warned that the social and economic effects of COVID-19 on health are disproportionately affecting women and called for greater attention to disparities of the pandemic.
“To overcome this pandemic, countries must recognize and respond to the gender dynamics of this outbreak,” she said on Tuesday in a briefing on virtual media.
“This starts by ensuring that women and girls have access to the health services they need – especially during this time of crisis. This includes hotlines of gender-based violence and sexual and reproductive health services, which are essential services. “
While men are more likely to fall ill with COVID-19 early in the pandemic, these trends are reversing, said Etienne.
Now women are just as likely to develop the disease and are more vulnerable on many other fronts.
“Women, who make up 70 percent of the world’s healthcare professionals, faced an enormous personal risk to care for patients with COVID, even when they had little protective equipment available,” said Etienne.
To date, more than one million health professionals in the Americas have been ill with COVID-19 and 4,000 health professionals, most of them women, have died.
Etienne said that the serious economic and social impacts of COVID-19 fall heavily on women.
“Many women were forced to leave their jobs to care for their families during this pandemic, affecting both their income and well-being. And continued measures to stay at home, along with additional economic tensions, are increasing the risks of domestic violence. For many women, the home is not a safe space, ”she said.
The Director of PAHO reported that 36 of the countries and territories participating in COVAX, the global mechanism for equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, have been notified that more than 35 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine should begin arriving at the end of this year. month.
Over the weekend, countries received letters from COVAX detailing the doses that were allocated.
“As the limited COVID-19 vaccines arrive in our region, countries must prioritize these starting doses for our elderly and our healthcare professionals – many of whom are women,” said Etienne.
“Vaccinating healthcare professionals first is the right and smart thing to do: it will help us save lives, protect our health systems and recover our savings more quickly.”
Addressing new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, Etienne reported that three new variants have been detected in 20 countries in the Americas, although their frequency is still limited.
The variants raised concerns about possible increased transmission.
Etienne also updated the number of pandemic victims in the region.
Last week, more than 1.8 million people in the Americas became ill with COVID-19 and more than 47,000 died.
In North America, COVID-19 infections are decreasing in the United States and Canada, while in Mexico, cases and deaths continue to increase.
Across the Caribbean, most nations are seeing relief from COVID-19 infections, although larger islands such as the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico and Cuba continue to generate new infections.
Almost all South American countries have reported an increase in COVID-19 infections in the past week.
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