Alberto Fernández on alert for the possible community circulation of the Delta variant in the country after a report from the Ministry of Health

In the last hours, the Minister of Health, Carla Vizzotti, reported to the President Alberto Fernandez in which he specifies that there is already a community circulation of Delta variant in Paraguay and that this increase in infections could cross the border and arrive in Argentina within the next month.

The Minister alerted the Head of State to the possibility that three or four weeks the Delta variant could increase its circulation in the country, which implies an additional concern for the government, which so far has sought to delay, through restrictive measures, that the Delta cases are multiplying at full speed.

With this scenario to come, Cofesa, which is made up of all the country’s health ministers, defined on Tuesday prioritize the application of the second doses of the vaccine during the month of August. The goal they set for themselves is that within the next month, 60% of people over 50 complete the immunization schedule.

“We agreed that August would be the second dose month to have an impact on decreasing mortality and hospitalizations given the potential risk of having persistent circulation from the delta variant,” Vizzotti said at the meeting. ‘yesterday.

In government, they admit that although one dose is used to deal with the interference of the Delta variant, It is important that the vaccination schedule is completed so that the health barrier is more powerful and prevents serious cases. Hence the rush to start completing vaccination cycles during the winter. They assume they won’t be able to delay community traffic any longer.

Regarding vaccination schedules, The great concern is linked to the arrival of the second doses of Sputnik V. While they maintain negotiations with the Gamaleya Institute, after the criticisms made by the presidential adviser Cecilia Nicolini for the delay in the execution of the contract, they hope that the production of the Richmond Laboratory will advance.

At the moment there is 1,200,000 second doses manufactured by the Argentinian laboratory which are stored in a logistics center and await final approval from Russia before they can be applied. In addition, a million additional doses could be produced during the month of August. With the domestic supply, the government could reduce the amount of second doses it needs from the Russian Investment Fund to send it.

In addition, wait for the progress of studies to combine vaccines from different laboratories, which would be an alternative solution to the absence of the second Russian component. In the meantime, they will speed up the second doses of Sinopharm and AstraZeneca. They are authorized by the flow of vaccines arriving in the country from the two laboratories.

Regarding the possibility of applying restrictions, For the moment, closure measures other than those already in force are not being assessed. All land borders are closed and the entry of passengers from abroad began to be, as of the 24th of this month, 7,000 per week. It’s part of a phased plan the government has devised to ease entry into the country, after lowering the quota to 600 people per day.

In the Casa Rosada they are watching with concern what is happening with the Delta variant in neighboring countries and assume that to a large extent individual responsibility is essential so that the virus does not spread quickly. This is why they insist on the importance of respecting the 7 days of quarantine when returning to the country and respecting the swabs.

Most Delta cases come from travelers arriving in Ezeiza from United States, although the cases of people who have returned from Spain, Holland, Mexico, Montenegro, Panama, France, Denmark and Venezuela.

So far in the country, a total of 46 cases of the Delta strain have been identified. 45 belong to people with a history of international travel, while one is a close contact of a traveler. For the moment, there are no indigenous cases, that is to say they have no connection with those who arrived from abroad.

According to the latest data published by the Ministry of Health, 36% of travelers who tested positive were detected by the test carried out on their entry into the country (16 cases), while 64% (29 cases) were positive during the phase isolation. , for having started symptoms after entering the country or for having had positive results during the PCR test on the seventh day of isolation.

In the government, they consider that migration controls have been effective in reducing the rate of non-compliance with quarantine, which has fallen from 40% to 10%. Nevertheless, they admit that the control cannot be permanent and that it is decisive that those returning from abroad respect the quarantine strictly.

From the first moment at Casa Rosada, they maintained that all measures were aimed at delaying the arrival of the new variant, but that it was impossible to stop it completely. Now what they see in the future is a different scenario than what they had a month ago. Next month, they hope to finish vaccinating, with a single dose, all over 18 registered.

Collective immunity will be quite different from what Argentina had when the Delta emerged as a latent problem that it had to tackle quickly to avoid having another health crisis.

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