Director of Pan American health organization (PAHO) Dr. Carissa Etienne is urging regional governments to maintain routine vaccination programs amid growing covid-19 cases, warning that faltering could lead to other disease outbreaks, resulting in possible collapse of health systems.
Dr. Etienne said, while addressing a weekly virtual briefing hosted by PAHO, that this week is vaccination week in the Americas.
A time to promote and celebrate the life-saving power of vaccines. Etienne added that until a vaccine for covid-19 is available, immunizations can and must be delivered by the health services alongside response to covid-19”.
The PAHO director said this week has marked a somber milestone in the fight against covid-19, with more than one million cases of the virus reported in the Americas as of April 27th and more than 60,000 people dying from the disease.
