Covid-19 And Latin America-A Relentless Outbreak

 

Latin America’s relentless outbreak

No part of the world has been as devastated by the coronavirus as Latin America. Of the 15 countries with the highest deaths per capita in the world, 11 are in Latin America or the Caribbean.

Unlike in Europe or the United States, the outbreak in Latin America has not come in waves. It slammed into the region in the spring and plateaued at an extraordinarily high level, exacerbated by anemic health care systems, inequality and government ineptitude and indifference.

In Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak is Iztapalapa, a poor neighborhood in the capital, Mexico City, that’s home to the Central de Abasto, the largest produce market in the Western Hemisphere. The virus quickly tore through the market, which has some 100,000 workers, and radiated out into the surrounding community and beyond. At one point, officials estimated that one of every 10 people put on a ventilator in Mexico City had been in the market.

Our colleague Azam Ahmed, who covers Latin America, chronicled the savage outbreak there over the course of months.

“It became an almost frightening spectacle,” Azam told us. “We had seen it bustling with so much life and energy, but then the virus hit and it was like falling off the edge of a cliff. Every day there were fewer and fewer people, people began to be fearful, and a lot of people began to die.”

But no matter how bad the outbreak got, the market never shut down. It supplies fruits and vegetables for 30 percent of the nation, and it was too important to close. For many of the workers, who faced work or starvation, there also wasn’t much of a choice.

Christopher Arriaga, who works in the market, saw the virus kill the man in the vegetable stall next to him. Then he began losing customers, and his father fell ill, too.

“There is this moment when you start to see people dying, and the stress begins to destroy you,” Mr. Arriaga said. “It made me realize what a trapped animal feels like.”