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The Argentine president announced a new extension, for three weeks, of what is the longest quarantine in the world and which will reach at least 184 days, with special concern for the interior of the country, where the coronavirus is advancing.
“We made the decision to extend the measures of care, sanitary isolation and physical distance until September 20,” announced President Alberto Fernández in a recorded message.
Aware of the social fatigue after 162 days of isolation that began on March 20Alberto Fernández preferred not to be exposed to a press conference and did not use the term “quarantine” to refer to a new extension, the 11th, which this time was for three weeks, when the announcements usually involve two weeks.
The announcement comes when the country has exceeded ten thousand daily infections in the last three days, registering, in the last 24 hours, the historical record of 11,717 new infections, despite the fact that it is the least testing country in the region, just ahead of Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana and Suriname, respectively.
Argentina now has 392 thousand registered cases and 8271 deaths.
“45 days ago, 93% of the new cases occurred in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires while in the provinces [no interior] they were 7%. Today, 37% of the total occurs in the provinces “, the President illustrated to show his concern about the rapid advance of the new coronavirus in the interior of the country, where” the health system is not so robust. “
“We cannot be careless now. The problem is not just Buenos Aires: it is all over the country If we relax, there is no health system that can handle it‘Alberto Fernández warned, when there are already cities in the interior reaching saturation of the system.
The metropolitan area of Buenos Aires, which includes the country’s capital and ten other surrounding municipalities, shows signs of being under control. The Federal District has a 60% occupancy in Intensive Care Units (ICU) while, in neighboring municipalities, the average is 66%. With the situation stable in the most densely populated region of the country, the president delivered the only good news for the next three weeks.
“We are going to authorize the meetings of up to ten people in the open air, with a distance of two meters between them and with a mask,” he announced and later warned that “a state of relaxation or trust should not be adopted.”
Thus, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, where until now not even children could go to the squares to play, maintaining a five-month confinement, there may be meetings only in the open air.
“But we maintain the prohibition of meetings of people in cases of closed environments“Alberto Fernández warned, reinforcing the decree that prevents meetings between friends and family.
The announcement of the president on the one hand and the opposition governor of the Federal District on the other, when they were together in the ten previous announcements, showed the climate of political tension in the country where the rigidity of the quarantine is a reason for discord.
The governor of the Federal District, Horacio Larreta, has been pushing to make the regime more flexible, obtaining some permits for the country’s capital and betting on civil liability.
“Starting Monday, we will allow the opening of bars and restaurants with only street service and we will give more public space for tables that must have distance between them and a maximum of people,” announced Larreta, who promised to start. The civil construction works are gradually resumed in the city of Buenos Aires.
In addition to the gastronomic sector, this week the clash of opinions between Horacio Larreta and Alberto Fernández became clear about a plan that only contemplated the return to classes of 6,500 of the 500,000 students of public schools in the city and that was finally rejected by the Government Federal.
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