“I am seeing people die in less than a week – young patients unresponsive to treatment. You administer oxygen, do all the mechanics – turn them face down, face up – but it doesn’t work. Then there are other patients whose oxygenation level is not so bad – but they die anyway,” Edul says.
A devastating second wave of Covid cases has caught Argentina off-guard, with relaxed restrictions and a low vaccination rate. Cases have risen from a daily total of about 5,000 in early March to a record 35,000 this week, while deaths surged from 112 at the start of March to a record 744 on Tuesday. On Wednesday daily contagions set a new record, just under 40,000 cases, while deaths dropped to 494.
The figures put the country third in daily cases after India and Brazil, and fourth in Covid deaths, after India, Brazil and the US.
Relative to population, Argentina now has the highest number of Covid deaths per day in the world, with 16.46 Covid fatalities per million on Tuesday, far exceeding its giant neighbour Brazil, which saw 11.82 per million.
On May 20, the world marks the fourth annual World Bee Day via a virtual event hosted by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, guided by the theme “Bee engaged—Build Back Better for Bees.” Bees play an important role in pollination, a process that is critical to the survival of ecosystems, biodiversity, food security and sustainability, and they have been under threat at rates 100 to 1,000 times higher than normal because of habitat loss and other human impacts, including the climate crisis. Unsustainable agricultural approaches like monoculture and the damaging effects of pesticides have greatly harmed the world’s bee population. This year’s event aims to achieve global awareness of the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened food insecurity, while advocating for ways in which to regenerate the environment and protect these vital pollinators.



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