​​​​​What you should know

• Bolsonaro: Brazilian senators voted to recommend charging the president over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Brazil’s death toll is second only to the United States.
• CARICOM: The recipient of a $2.5 million donation for urgent COVID-19 assistance from USAID, building upon the $63 million already provided to the Caribbean.
• 40 percent: The target vaccination rate Latin America and the Caribbean is on track to meet by the end of 2021, according to PAHO.

Vaccination by the numbers

Vaccinations per capita (vaccines administered per 100 people): Cuba (224) #1 worldwide, Uruguay (190) #3 worldwide, Chile (186) #4 worldwide, El Salvador (130) #42 worldwide, Argentina (130) #43 worldwide, Brazil (128) #47 worldwide, Panama (128) #49 worldwide, Ecuador (124) #54 worldwide, Dominican Republic (122) #55 worldwide, Costa Rica (121) #57 worldwide, Peru (104) #67 worldwide, Source: nytimes.com

Percentage of population fully vaccinated: Chile (77) #8 worldwide, Uruguay (76) #13 worldwide, Cuba (62) #39 worldwide, Ecuador (58) #49 worldwide, El Salvador (58) #50 worldwide, Argentina (57) #55 worldwide, Panama (56) #57 worldwide, Brazil (55) #58 worldwide,  Costa Rica (50) #67 worldwide, Dominican Republic (49) #68 worldwide, Source nytimes.com

Geopolitics of vaccine donations: US vs. China

• The United States outpaces China in its donations of COVID-19 vaccines to Latin America and the Caribbean, with Colombia and Mexico topping the list. The region has received roughly 52 percent of all US COVID-19 vaccine donations. To learn more, visit our COVID-19 vaccine tracker: Latin America and the Caribbean.

Health + Innovation

• Argentina: The latest country to begin offering a third dose of COVID-19 vaccines to citizens aged over 50 and the immunocompromised.
• Over 2 million: The number of Sinovac vaccines Colombia received last week through the COVAX mechanism.
• Solidarity: In partnership with PAHO, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) delivered the first part of its $1 million donation to strengthen COVID-19 response in Jamaica.
• Colombia: One of three countries to co-sponsor with the WHO the Solidarity Trial Vaccines, a clinical trial platform designed to test promising candidate COVID-19 vaccines.
• Uruguay: Government officials will meet with Pfizer to finalize the purchase of COVID-19 booster vaccines in hopes of attracting foreign tourists.
• Chile: Following an increase in cases, the government announced new restrictions for the Metropolitan Region, including Santiago.
• Nearly 8,000: The number of Nicaraguans that received COVID-19 vaccines at two customs border crossings with Honduras, as vaccine supplies in Nicaragua have run low. Days later, on October 28, the US announced a 305,370 vaccine donation to Nicaragua via COVAX.
• 1.3 million: The number of vaccine doses PAHO helped fast-track to Honduras, Guyana, Argentina, and Jamaica in an effort to boost vaccination campaigns.

Economies in focus

Economic Impact

• The Caribbean was the world’s most tourism-reliant region before the pandemic, yet tourism for 2021 is only expected to reach 60 percent of pre-pandemic levels. 
• The 6.8 percent drop in GDP for Latin America the Caribbean during the course of the pandemic has contributed to an increase of 22 million more people living in poverty. 
• Inflation in Mexico reached 6 percent (double the Central Bank’s target) due to supply chain bottlenecks worsened by the pandemic. 

Economic Recovery

• Peru’s economy has grown 12.2 percent in 2021 due to recent success in pandemic management and high availability of liquidity for households. 
• As Colombia’s economy rebounds, private consumption  in 2022 is expected to shift from goods to services. 

Multilateral analysis and support

• The IMF published their Regional Economic Outlook for the Western Hemisphere; it expects the region to grow by 6.3 percent in 2021 and 3.0 percent in 2022. 
• ECLAC identified how the COVID-19 pandemic exposed structural inequities within social protection and disaster risk management systems in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Social transformations: The future of supply chain resilience

• The quarantine-mandated factory shutdowns, port closures, and shipping delays have had ripple effects on production processes across the world. 
• These disrupted supply chains struggled to respond to the increased demand as economies re-opened, causing delays that will extend into winter holidays. 
• Going forward, the pandemic will likely cause permanent shifts toward more localized and sustainable supply chains with greater source visibility.