WHO director warns Latin America is opening too early, COVID-19 still a risk

Latin America has started to resume normal social and public life at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic still requires major control interventions, the World Health Organization regional director Carissa Etienne said on Wednesday.

Speaking in a virtual briefing from Washington with other Pan American Health Organization directors, Etienne said coronavirus cases in Colombia's border area with Venezuela have increased ten-fold in the last 2 weeks. Death rates are climbing in areas of Mexico, and similar trends are seen in Ecuador, Costa Rrica and Bolivia, she said.