COVID-19 - PAHO/WHO Response, Report 65 (3 December 2021)

PAHO published “Strengthening mental health responses to COVID- 19 in the Americas: A health policy analysis and recommendations,” in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas. The paper highlights the devastating toll of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and wellbeing of populations in the Americas, as well as the impact of service disruptions throughout the Region. Countries across the Americas have reported a worsening of their population mental health. “The message is clear: we have been operating in crisis mode since the onset of the pandemic,” said Dr. Anselm Hennis, Director of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health at PAHO. “In addition to navigating the fear of getting sick and the trauma of losing loved ones to the novel coronavirus, people across the Americas havesuffered fromunemployment, poverty and food insecurity, and the adverse impact on mental healthhas been pervasive”, he added. The authors stressed that there is an immediate need for countries in the Americas to scale up and improve mental health and psychosocial support services during the pandemic and to build back better mental health systems in anticipation of future emergencies, including climate change.

According to the PAHO Epidemiological Update: SARS-CoV-2 variants in the Region of the Americas of 1 December 2021, all five Variants of Concern (VOC) of the SARS-COV-2 virus have been identified in the Americas, including Omicron. The most frequent variant continues to be Delta, with 181 countries worldwide – including 54 countries and territories in the Americas – reporting its detection. As of 3 December 2021, the Omicron VOC has been reported in at least 25 countries globally, including Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America. However, it is not yet clear if it is more easily transmitted from person-to-person compared to other variants, or if it causes more severe disease. Understanding the level of severity of Omicron could take several weeks. All SARS-CoV-2 variants, including the globally dominant Delta VOC, can cause serious illness or death, particularly for the most vulnerable people; therefore, prevention is always paramount, as highlighted by PAHO’s Epidemiological Update.