First modification:
The restriction will apply from midnight to 6:00 in the areas of greatest epidemiological risk, which include places where more than half of the Argentine population lives. In addition, President Alberto Fernández announced more restrictions, which are the strongest that have been in the South American nation so far in 2021. The new measures coincide with the day in which the country reached a new record of infections in a single working day.
“Argentina has entered the second wave.” Thus, President Alberto Fernández gave an account of the sanitary state that the country is going through due to Covid-19 and, later, announced the new measures that will be in force from this Friday, April 9 until the 30th of the same month.
In areas with the highest epidemiological and sanitary risk, circulation is prohibited between midnight and 6:00 (local time), although jurisdictions may extend the hours. In addition, bars and restaurants must close at 23:00. These measures will apply in 85 districts of the country, which include the City of Buenos Aires and many areas of the province of Buenos Aires. In total, 25 million people live in the areas with the highest epidemiological risk, a figure that represents more than half of the country’s population.
Argentina has entered the second wave and we must take measures to slow down the contagion rate. That is why I ask you to reinforce the care while the vaccination continues.
Health cannot be a matter of political confrontation. Taking care of ourselves must be a collective commitment. pic.twitter.com/37bHWA1u0U
– Alberto Fernández (@alferdez) April 8, 2021
There, social activities in private homes are also suspended and all gatherings of more than 20 people in public outdoor spaces are prohibited. Casinos, bingo halls, discos or any party room must close their doors. Nor can recreational sports be practiced in closed spaces with more than 10 people.
Additionally, group tourism, study and graduate trips are suspended for the entire country. The latter are what students do when they complete secondary school and sometimes primary school.
In the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires (AMBA) there will be even more restrictions. This area includes the City of Buenos Aires plus the portion of the province of Buenos Aires that surrounds it and is the one with the highest circulation in the country. There, the use of public transport will be limited to essential workers (such as health or security personnel, for example) and the educational community. The government had been insisting on trying to maintain the presence in education that just recovered widely at the beginning of the 2021 school year, after a 2020 almost without classes in the classrooms.
“In these months we want to take care of health, take care of economic recovery and take care of the presence in schools as much as possible,” said Fernández in the speech he gave outdoors from the presidential residence of Olivos, in the midst of the isolation that he maintains after being diagnosed with Covid-19.
The economy is also a sensitive point, after very hard months of quarantine in 2020, which among other things caused poverty to climb to 42% in the second half of that year, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec) of Argentina.
Argentina surpassed its own record with more than 22,000 infections in a single day
The announcements come after an acceleration in the rate of infections. This Wednesday, the Ministry of Health reported that 22,083 infections were registered in 24 hours, the highest number since the arrival of Covid-19 in Argentina in March 2020. A day earlier, the positive diagnoses in one day were 20,870. In total, as of Wednesday, just over 2.5 million people had contracted the virus in the country, of which almost 57,000 died from the outbreak.
“In recent weeks the number of cases has increased steadily in many areas of the country,” said Fernández. “Only in the last seven days the cases increased by 36% throughout the Argentine territory and 53% in the AMBA,” said the president. The Government insists that most of the infections have to do with social activities, although others point to greater general activity and the massive use of public transport. The latter is evidenced by the images that have been disseminated through the internet in recent days in which train cars are crowded with people.
In any case, the president said that “the next three weeks are very important”, echoing the words of the Minister of Health, Carla Vizzotti, who had said that this time may allow progress in the vaccination of a greater number of people of the most vulnerable populations.
“We have already vaccinated more than 90% of the health personnel with at least one dose,” said Fernández. “We want to end the month of April with the largest number of people over 70 vaccinated.” According to information from the Public Vaccination Monitor, more than 2.35 million people over 60 have already received at least one dose (the Monitor does not separate those over 60 from those over 80). That figure represents around 32% of that population.
Although infections are increasing, to the extent that there are more vaccinated inhabitants, serious cases can be prevented, as happened to President Fernández, who has a mild case of coronavirus after being vaccinated.
“The national government will rigorously evaluate the correct implementation of the measures”
For now, according to data from the Ministry of Health, the occupancy of intensive care beds is 58.1% nationwide and 64.5% in the AMBA. Although sources from the private health sector told France 24 en Español that in the AMBA it is above that number; This media was able to see evidence that this is the case at least in some health centers.
On the other hand, despite the fact that the number of beds and respirators were increased and that the staff has clearer how to treat patients with Covid-19, the workers drag a great exhaustion after a whole year of pandemic. With this information in hand, and awaiting further growth in cases, there are intensive care units that are already reinforcing their work teams.
In principle, to know how the pandemic will evolve in Argentina, it will be necessary to see what will be the level of compliance with the restrictions established by the national government, to which specific measures will be added that will be announced by each of the districts. “The national government will rigorously evaluate the correct implementation of the measures,” Fernández warned in his speech.
Closer to the end of April it will be known if all this was enough or if greater restrictions will be necessary.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/argentina-prohibits-night-time-traffic-due-to-the-accelerated-increase-in-covid-19-cases/
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