Coronavirus: Uruguay announced measures to deal with …

Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou announced a package of measures and restrictions to curb the rise in coronavirus infections. The country has experienced an escalation of cases at a time when only 6 percent of the total population received the first dose of the vaccine. In this line, The Conservative president announced that attendance at all levels of education was no longer compulsory.

“The obligation (of attendance) is suspended throughout the education system throughout the country”Lacalle Pou said at a press conference announcing the new measures that will be in effect to reduce infections. The president also clarified that he had not ordered the closure of schools since in educational centers, the percentage of infections has so far been 2.5 percent.

However, the move is part of a battery of measures aimed at curbing the increase in infections that have been recorded in the country in recent weeks. Among them are thea reduction in the capacity of interdepartmental means of transport, as well as the suspension of amateur sports and the closing of changing rooms in gymnasiums and clubs. On the other hand, they also extended the limitation of the right of assembly to avoid agglomerations which favor the circulation of the virus.

“The transmission of the virus today is given by young people, from 20 to 39 years old”Lacalle Pou said after a meeting of his cabinet of ministers, organized because of the increase in cases of covid-19. The President regretted the low influx of priority groups to receive the inoculation and added that At Easter, the vaccine against the disease will be applied to people between the ages of 18 and 70.

Du Frente Amplio (FA), the left-wing coalition that ruled between 2005 and 2020, they questioned the absence of dissemination restriction measures, as recommended by the Honorary Scientific Advisory Group (GACH). FA officials also spoke out against the lack of economic solutions for the country’s most vulnerable sectors.

For his part, the deputy Sebastián “Tati” Sabini, youth referent of the FA, spoke on the suspension of the obligation to attend classes “without giving any tools to families or teachers” and was asked about connectivity issues “

According to the group of scientists advising the government, Uruguay is in a phase of “Intense and sustained community transmission of the SARS-CoV2 virus”. The weekly average of cases is 1,200 cases per day. The vaccination campaign announced by the government of Lacalle Pou includes 1,250,000 CoronaVac vaccines, of which the country has already received 192,000 doses on March 1 and an additional 1.5 million arrived on Tuesday. They also expect to receive a total of two million doses of the drug from Pfizer, which delivers the vaccine each week. In total, some 215,000 people received the first dose of CoronaVac or Pfizer.

Meanwhile, in the department of Treinta y Tres, on the Brazilian border, cases detected that could indicate that the new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has entered Uruguay. According to the health director of Treinta y Tres, José Quintin Olano, the level of contagion and the percentage of symptomatic patients are higher than those used to having in the Uruguayan province. Quintín Olano explained to EFE that he does not rule out the appearance of a new strain of covid-19.

Olano added that in Treinta y Tres they did not have the technical capacity to investigate the new variants and that the investigations should be carried out in the capital Montevideo. He also considered that at present there are many active cases and many people in quarantine.

Uruguay has remained a model in terms of managing the pandemic, for most of 2020 it has been successful in controlling cases. However, since November of last year there has been an increase in cases and the number of people admitted to intensive care units. With 3.4 million inhabitants, it currently records 73,770 infections and 725 deaths due to Covid-19. According to the latest daily report from the MSP, a total of 916 new cases have been detected, most of which are concentrated in Montevideo (461), Canelones (80), Rivera (80) and Tacuarembó (68). They currently register more than 10,000 active cases (people with the disease) and 135 of them are in intensive care.