[News] Argentina returns to restrictions in the face of strong advance of covid-19

[UltimaTexCS]

"The virus is attacking us and it is far from giving in." With unusual gravity, Argentine President Alberto Fernández announced on Wednesday night the beginning of a night curfew from Friday, as well as the suspension for two weeks of face-to-face classes in the city of Buenos Aires and its populous outskirts. Recreational, cultural and religious activities may not be carried out. Commercial activity must take place during restricted hours. Restaurants must close at night. Fernández was reluctant to take these measures in the face of social fatigue accumulated since March 2020, when the pandemic began. The exponential growth of positive cases and the growing fear of a hospital collapse has forced the president to put in place a new battery of restrictions and warn that he will appeal to all security forces for control in the metropolitan area.

With the 368 deaths on Wednesday, Argentina accumulates 58,542 deaths. The infections reach more than 2.6 million. 71% of beds in intensive care units are occupied and, at this rate, they will soon not be able to cope. The speed of vaccination is much slower than that of infections. "We have more than doubled the number of infections in just one month. In the middle we try to call the social group to reflect. The advance of the pandemic is demanding a little more from us," the president told the po[CENSORED]tion.

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Fernández gave his own case as an example. "I don't know how I got it, I can't find the link that infected me. I was able to cope well thanks to the vaccine I received," he said, after 12 days of isolation.

The Peronist president reiterated that the main focus of infections is in social gatherings. "It is not in the factories, it is not centrally in the businesses that with social distance can serve customers. The central problem is where people relax."

Difficulties
The president seemed to speak alone and without the expected consensus of all the provinces. "I hope that the governors and mayors, who understand that they must accompany me at this difficult time, will do so."

Fernández said that "the health system has also relaxed" by opening its doors to "attend to other types of surgical needs that could wait." In this way, "in the private system a number of used beds accumulated that today may be very necessary to attend to covid-19".

Vaccination and opposition protests
Some six million Argentines have been vaccinated so far. The country has one of the best regional averages and ranks 22nd globally, according to Oxford University's Our World in Data (OWD) database. "The vaccines keep coming, this weekend we are going to have more vaccines," said the head of state. Reportedly, 864,000 doses of the Oxford / AstraZéneca vaccine will arrive. The game will start immunizing people between 60 and 69 years old.

The new restrictions were rejected by the right-wing parties that called for caceroladas in the more affluent neighborhoods of the capital and its surroundings. The noises reached the presidential residence. "President: decide against those who work, the parents who take their children to school, the businesses that merge. Decide for those who have their lives resolved against those who work. That is the crack that you have generated The oligarchy of the bureaucrats won, "said Patricia Bullrich, the president of PRO, the party of former president Mauricio Macri. Peronism accused her of seeking political-electoral profit in the midst of a situation aggravated by the economic collapse.