Patterns of responses to COVID-19 in selected Latin American countries

Abstract

The article analyses structural and context constraints and opportunities faced by Latin America in the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic. We argue that the number of deaths (and related statistics, such as number of infected or number of tests) as a proportion of the countries’ populations is an important but insufficient measure of the effectiveness of each country’s responses to the SARS-CoV-2. We test the correlation of deaths with typical structural constraints (Gross domestic product, United Nation – Human Development Index, Gini index, expenditure in health, children’s mortality rate, informality rate), and find that between countries’ differences in these measures do not help to understand the number of deaths per million inhabitants. We then move to a more in-depth analysis of 11 selected Latin American countries to show that those that chose collective responsibility (a notion developed in the article) in the management of the responses to the crisis, and that could coordinate the actions of different governing levels, fared much better than those that chose individual responsibility and low levels of coordination, irrespective of existing structural constraints.

Aging population and mental health vulnerability during COVID-19 in South America

“…In addition, the dynamic lockdown, based on circulation restrictions were applied as a containment measure in some neighborhoods, based on the rate of spread, rather than in entire municipalities, which was considered a complete failure and it contrasted with the violence of the armed forces in the streets. The aim was alleged to prevent disease circulation and looting, but it blocked the mounting wave of political protests (Peres & Cardoso, 2021). The reduced adherence to group or individual isolation, as people were required to keep working (Julian, 2020), combined with less than sufficient consumables of new rooms for hospitalization for COVID-19 and other diseases, resulted in the failure of hospitals with a consequent increase in the death rate, the fact that experts had been alerting even before (Bacigalupe et al, 2020).…”

“…With its first confirmed case on March 6, 2020, an inflexible quarantine policy was initially established with armed forces barriers between municipalities, police patrols, mandatory use of masks, the establishment of fines, closure of economic activities except those related to food, and gender-specific days for the population to leave the house to buy goods or essential services (Peres & Cardoso, 2021). This last measure was eliminated after one week for being counterproductive (Gonzales-Castillo et al, 2020).…”

“…In addition, it is worth mentioning that there was a clear lack of coordination between national and regional authorities (Schwalb & Seas, 2021), and, as a consequence, the population found some peculiar ways to fight the virus. Among these were the use of ineffective drugs such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, which were easily bought in drugstores without a prescription, affecting the elderly much more because of the need for official preconditions (Schwalb & Seas 2021;Molento, 2020;Peres & Cardoso, 2021).…”

“…After the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the country on March 10 th , 2020, the government quickly decreed a national quarantine (the violation of which could lead to imprisonment for eight hours), limiting public and private transportation schedules, establishing specific opening hours for essential services with use limited to one person per family according to the ending of the ID card number and only persons between 18 and 65 years of age. Subsequently, the government prohibited the suspension of services such as water, electricity, and internet for non-payment, and reduced electricity tariffs (Peres & Cardoso, 2021;Wanderley et al, 2020). These initial measures were important to mitigate contagions, however, the labor situation of the Bolivians, that have a large rate of informal jobs (>70%), made strict isolation very difficult to achieve (Hummel et al, 2021).…”