Uruguay became a COVID success story. Now it’s hosting U.N. discussion on risk reduction
With one of the highest vaccinations against COVID-19, tiny Uruguay in South America has stood as a rare example of a country that has managed to keep a lid on the deadly pandemic despite being surrounded by other nations that have struggled with the virus.
The country’s successful management — there have been no COVID-19 related hospitalizations over the past three weeks, and they haven’t recorded any deaths — was put on display here Tuesday as regional leaders in disaster risk management and climate-change response used the pandemic as a blueprint on the need for better disaster-risk reduction, and the consequences if it doesn’t happen.
“The pandemic broke all records,” Alvaro Delgado, who works for the presidency, said during the opening ceremony of the United Nations’ eighth Regional Platform for the Reduction of the Risk of Disasters in the Americas and the Caribbean. “[But] this was a very controlled pandemic that we had here.”
The rest of the world wasn’t so lucky, a fact that U.N. experts and others noted during discussions about the region’s ongoing vulnerability to climate change. Time and again, they turned to COVID-19, now in its third year, as an example to make their case.
“Climate change promises to shake our realities,” Mami Mizutori, special representative of the U.N. Secretary-General on Disaster Risk Reduction and head of the U.N. Office for Disaster Reduction, said in opening remarks.
“The latest reports tell us that more extreme events will occur frequent and intense that will cause damage to the entire planet,” she said.. The COVID-19 pandemic, Mizutori noted, showed how the world was interconnected and that the effect of disasters cascades, requiring comprehensive coordination.
Not only are the Americas and the Caribbean some of the regions most affected by the pandemic, they are also vulnerable to hazards such as hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
The conference has drawn about 1,000 individuals from dozens of countries across the region to discuss how to mitigate against the effects of climate change.
“We have to work together. We have to try and coordinate ourselves, not only nationally but internationally,” Delgado said, touting how Uruguay’s COVID-19 response serves as a blueprint for other disasters.
With 3.4 million people, the country borders Brazil and Argentina, two countries that struggled to control COVID-19 deaths despite strict measures.
Uruguay, Delgado said, didn’t shut down its economy and managed to come out ahead. But it required the central and local governments working jointly, along with the private sector.
“We have one of the highest vaccinated rates in the world,” he said.
But due to the ongoing climate crisis, the country is “experiencing the worst drought in the last 40 to 50 years that is affecting agriculture,” Delgado said, adding that last summer had one of its largest wildfires as a result of drought.
This story has been updated to reflect that Alvaro Delgado works for the presidency.
This story was originally published March 1, 2023 at 7:00 AM.
