Argentina still struggles against Covid-19 despite a long lockdown
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA It was one of the first Latin American countries to decree quarantine. But Argentina’s efforts to halt the Covid-19 disaster have led its inhabitants into financial hardship.
After strategically releasing the lockdown in several regions, the government announced that Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area ‒ which includes Capital City of Buenos Aires and another 40 municipalities ‒ would go back to phase one from July 1 to 17 to avoid the collapse of the healthcare system, given that the highest amount of infections are located in this area.
What was seen as a bold, but necessary, decision in March is now the main reason for discontent.
People stopped clapping from their balconies a long time ago. The fear of getting infected was replaced by the tiredness and frustration of being in the longest lockdown in the world. Since March 20, they were unable to work ‒ as well as being kept apart from their loved ones.
Despite restrictions and the well-known protocols to limit people from spreading the virus, the number of infected Argentinians spiked in the first week of July: 2,979 new cases on July 7, up to 3,663 on July 9. According to Fernán Quirós, health minister of the city of Buenos Aires, these numbers persuaded authorities to go back to the first scenario. Only essential workers are allowed to commute ‒ with a corresponding permit ‒ on public transportation or in private cars. Like the rest of the world, home offices were established for many jobs.
Economic distress
The pandemic struck every economy in the world. Nevertheless, Argentina has been struggling with a chain of unsuccessful economic policies since the late 1990s and a more recent debt owed to the International Monetary Fund, a loan taken by former president Mauricio Macri in 2018 as an attempt to curb recession.
As well as the national crisis, on the local level tens of thousands of enterprises won’t reopen after the lockdown. Between 35,000 and 40,000 small and medium-sized enterprises closed for good, revealed the Economic Federation of Buenos Aires ‒ SME are very important in Argentina’s economy since they represent the highest percentage of production and employment.
Nine out of 10 families went into personal debt during the four months of quarantine, which is expected to lead almost half of the Argentinian population to health, educational and standard of living deprivations.
The government set up a system to pay out 10,000 pesos (140 USD), but that represents just 10% of the estimated budget a family needs in the city for a typical basket of goods. The program is called Emergency Family Income, and it represents 3% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, President Alberto Fernández declared in a national report. Around 9 million people received this aid in April and will again in July.
Health battle
According to the Ministry of Health, ICU beds were at a 51.6% capacity nationwide and at 58.8% in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Region at the beginning of July.
Health minister Quirós admitted on national TV that more tests were needed back in March when the quarantine was decreed to hamper the rise of infections.
When the quarantine began, the number of tests was 64.3 per million people. To this month, that amount increased up to 11,443.8 per million.
A system called DetectAR (to detect) was set up in May. The goal is to diagnose and isolate a person in time before they can pass on the virus by doing a door-to-door search of possible cases.
The government has also designated hotels for families and set up other isolation centers for single men and women whose houses are not suitable for proper quarantine after getting infected.
Meanwhile, infections continued to spread among healthcare personnel at hospitals and nursing homes.
A nurse from a public hospital in the city died back in June. So Argentina’s health workers union wrote a public letter to the health minister in order to improve the insufficient security protocols to protect staff.
Waiting for improvement
Experts cannot foresee whether the spread of infections will peak or slow down by the end of this new lockdown. But minister Quirós reassured the public that the effects of the rollback for two weeks will be observed in the following days.
As the number of infections climb fast, the economy stumbles ‒ and people decided to protest on national holidays.
By the time this article was finished, 2,178 people have died, 49,767 have recovered and the amount of confirmed infections in the country was 119,301.
On the same day the new lockdown ended and a gradual reopening was officially announced, infections rose to 4,518 cases. However, authorities warned every step will be taken according to the evolution of the healthcare system and the lives endangered.
