COVID-19 surges in U.S. and Canada worrisome as winter approaches - WHO director

Registered nurse Tamara Jones dressed in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), as the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, leaves the isolation room of a covid positive patient in the intensive care unit at Roseland Community Hospital on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, U.S., December 8, 2020. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

BRASILIA (Reuters) - The jumps in weekly COVID-19 case counts in the United States and Canada is particularly worrisome as winter approaches, the World Health Organization director for the Americas, Carissa Etienne, said on Wednesday.

Mexico is experiencing a resurgence in cases in the state of Baja California, near the U.S. border, she said in a briefing. Brazil is currently reporting the highest incidence of new cases in South America, and the mounting cases and deaths have put its health system under strain and hospitals are at capacity in some areas, Etienne said.