Here we have 3,193 new cases and 186 deaths in the latest report. Cases are well off the 8,000 per day in April and May, but the deaths are not really budging. I know they are a lagging indicator, but they should show some sign of moving downwards by now, you would think. So far in July, there have been 926 deaths, which is a lot worse than the UK.

It is interesting the divide that seems to be opening up between governments that want to reach zero Covid and those that decide that the virus is going to be something we have to live with. Here the Medical College proposed a zero Covid plan but the government rejected it. Today, they are going to announce a new tiered system that supposedly will give more freedom to the vaccinated and open up schools. I guess New Zealand is the other extreme. I read that they want to build a government isolation facility for cases and continue to implement lockdowns for the forseeable future. I guess we will see in time how each strategy plays out.

Active cases seem to be fizzling out a bit in our region. Our average cases are down 45% over the last 14 days, Brazil is down 35% and Paraguay 26%. We are out of the top 10 worldwide in active cases per 100,000 finally. Interestingly, Brazil and Paraguay have vaccinated a much lower percentage of the population than we have but are still seeing significant declines. I guess the high level of natural infections means that there are fewer hosts to attack. Argentina and Colombia are still pretty high but showing single-digit declines over the last 2 weeks. I think this wave started later in Colombia. I hope the downward trend keeps up in this part of the world.