Brazil has registered 266,398 deaths in more than 11 million infected people.  | Photo: EFE

Geneva, March 10 (RHC)-- The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has declared an "emergency" for all Latin America, after a new variant of COVID-19 was found in Brazil, whose presence throughout the territory raised alarms.

According to the head of the UN health agency, "the situation is very serious and we are very concerned. The sanitary measures taken by Brazil should be aggressive, at the same time that it goes ahead with vaccinations."

Dr. Tedros also pointed out that "the concern is not only about Brazil, but also about Brazil's neighbors. It is almost all of Latin America as a whole."  "If Brazil does not take it seriously, it will affect all its neighbors and beyond," affirmed the head of the world health organization.

For these reasons, the Chilean Ministry of Health (Minsal) has indicated the reinforcement of restrictions for travelers arriving to the territory from Brazil.  The Chilean Secretary of Health, Paula Daza, said that travelers arriving from Brazil must undergo a PCR test and, while awaiting the results, they will have to isolate themselves by entering an isolation center.

For cases that test positive, people will continue to be isolated for the duration of the disease or more days, depending on whether other virus sequencing tests take longer.

In Brazil, infections have been increasing steadily since last November and this is a serious concern for researchers, as well as the appearance and influx of new SARS-CoV-2 variants whose mutations could be associated with greater infectiousness.