The IACHR noted that, since the beginning of the global health emergency, efforts to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus and disease in the Americas have been affected by conditions that predated the pandemic, including discrimination, poverty, inequality, the structural weakness of public health systems, and, in many cases, a lack of political and institutional stability. As a result, the people of the Americas have been severely impacted by the pandemic. People with COVID-19 are at particular risk of being deprived of their human rights, especially their right to life and health care through appropriate access to medical facilities, supplies, and services.
In the Resolution 04/20, 'people with COVID-19' includes people who are thought to have been infected by the virus, people who are in both the presymptomatic and symptomatic phases (be they mild, moderate, severe, or critical cases), as well as those who are asymptomatic, those undergoing medical research tests, and those who have been killed by the pandemic, as well as their families and/or caregivers.