3 reasons to continue with lockdowns in the first half of 2021

Chile is an example for the world for its vaccination campaign. It usually ranks first or second in vaccinated per capita per day and is expected to be among the first to achieve early herd immunity.

However, Brazil, India, and Europe show us why all Latin American countries (and the world) must maintain their restrictive measures, at least during the first half of the year.

Europe case

The European Union is one of the areas that began vaccinating the earliest. However, the speed at which they are doing it is well below countries like the United States or the United Kingdom.

This slight delay is the reason for the new wave that the continent is experiencing and for which Germany, Spain and other countries once again took restrictions.

If Europe is facing a new wave with more than 10% of their population immunized, most Latin American countries do not even reach 5%. This can lead to a false sense of tranquility in the population and an increase in infections.

Case of Brazil

The South American giant has been in the news lately due to the collapse in the healthcare system due to the increase in positive cases of Covid 19. This has left the country without supplies, or spaces to be able to properly treat patients and there is a greater risk of increase of both infections and deaths related to coronavirus.

Quite possibly, this escalation of cases occurs with a denialist National Government that has been in disagreement in taking any restrictive measure. In addition to a posture of rejection towards the proper and mandatory use of the mask.

Also read: The consequences of the denialist governments of the Covid-19

Today, the country ranks second in registered cases with more than 12 million and is fifth in active cases. Most worryingly, despite being among the first in the region to vaccinate, they did not have 5% of their population vaccinated by the time the COVAX mechanism was activated in the country. 

So the risk of lifting the restriction measures can overwhelm health systems and this only means more deaths from Covid.

India case

India recently announced the discovery of a new variation of the virus. This not only represents a new problem for infections because many variants have the characteristics of having greater ease of contagion. It is also a risk for the world's vaccines. 

Existing vaccines may be less effective with these new strains (something that, so far, fortunately, has not happened). Thus, allowing contagions facilitates the chances of creating new versions of the virus that are more resistant (or completely immune) to existing vaccines.