Covid-19 has caused the death of more than one million people in Latin America and the Caribbean where slow vaccine rollouts are preventing an exit from the pandemic crisis.

Since the coronavirus was first detected in the region in Sao Paulo in late February 2020, AFP has recorded over 1,001,400 deaths — almost 30 per cent of the global total — and more than 31.5 million cases.

Nearly 90pc of the fatalities have been notched in just five countries, which represent 70pc of the region's total population: Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Peru.

“Right now the situation is terrible. We've never had something like this in our country,” Jacil Farias, an 82-year-old pensioner from Brazil, told AFP.