Pandemic: nation and provinces have agreed to certain restrictions

President Alberto Fernández yesterday gathered the political support of all governors – officials and opponents – to tighten in the coming weeks the restrictions and controls on the movement of people for fear of the imminent arrival of the second wave of Covid- 19, which should be more virulent and deadly than the previous one.

After a virtual meeting that lasted nearly two hours with the head of state of Olivos, the government has made no announcement since the technical teams still have to move forward in the work to analyze which measures are the most appropriate and since when they are applied. Therefore, today the Federal Health Council (Cofesa) will meet in person with Minister Carla Vizzotti.

Then, surprisingly, the president spoke at 9 p.m. on the national channel, with a recorded message of 12 minutes, in which he confirmed that “the borders will continue to be closed to foreign tourists, as since last December 24. “and asked the Argentinian company” to respect the main preventive measures “.

It was the first time that the head of state had used the national network to deliver a message since taking office on December 10, 2019.

A year after the start of the quarantine, Fernández said that “his biggest concern continues to be health and saving lives”, although he also added “to deal with the economic recovery”.

“Once again, I invite you to work together, regardless of political and social differences. Let us work in a coordinated manner with the 24 jurisdictions and with the whole of society to prevent and reduce as much as possible the second wave, ”he said later.

In this context, he described what are, in his opinion, “three very important problems” from which the world is suffering in the pandemic: the first, that “in many countries, with the arrival of autumn, a second wave began “and”, In many cases with very high levels of contagion and death “; the second, “Covid mutations”, which are more contagious, and the third, “the shortage of vaccines”.

“Only 18 countries have received 88% of the vaccines that have been distributed so far. The vast majority of countries are in a great desert, ”the president said, adding that“ only 15 countries have received more than 10% of the vaccines they have purchased so far ”.

In this sense, he admitted that Argentina “has received 4 million doses, only 6% of those that the state has contracted”.

Missing vaccines

At the previous meeting, governors expressed concern about the vaccine shortage.

Argentina has signed contracts for more than 54 million vaccines, but 85 days after the arrival of the first dose, it has only accepted four million and it is a mystery how the supply will evolve.

Today, a plane will arrive from Russia with a cargo of Sputnik V. Until last night, it was not known how many doses it would bring. According to Vizzotti and Chief of Staff Santiago Cafiero, the arrival of already purchased doses of Sinopharm vaccine (from China) and also 580,000 more from Covishield, India, is also imminent.

The race is against the clock. Argentina currently applies around 890,000 doses every seven days. Vizzotti said yesterday that this pace can be improved, but for this it is essential that the country access more doses.

The measures that come

Yesterday there was unanimous support from governors for Fernández and even demands to hasten the cancellation of international flights. They want to drastically reduce the number of people coming from Mexico, Europe, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Chile, the United States and Brazil. Even, depending on the evolution of the pandemic, they will cancel up to 100% of the connections with some of these destinations.

The idea is that, in a work coordinated by Cofesa, Migration and the Ministry of the Interior, a series of requirements and requirements are also determined for those who intend to leave the country, with the idea of ​​discouraging or postponing travel. And progress will also be made on other elements, such as freight transport, to improve controls.

Governors have said they cannot test everyone who enters their province, due to costs and infrastructure. Therefore, a program will be put in place so that there is test equipment at all land border crossings, which since December have only been open to the transport of goods.

A pilot test has been underway since the beginning of the month at the border posts with Brazil where genomic analyzes are carried out to identify the Brazilian variant. The idea is that the same is done in stages with Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia.

Corrientes, for example, has more than 350 kilometers of border with the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, which currently has all of its therapy beds occupied.

In Chile, more than 75% of its 346 municipalities were in full or partial quarantine yesterday due to the increase in Covid-19 cases and the occupancy rate of critical beds is 94%, despite the fact that it continues to move forward in its vaccination success process

Another worrying case is that of Paraguay, which yesterday suspended face-to-face classes and announced new internal traffic restrictions.

Governors analyze more controls for internal transport

There could be random Covid-19 testing on truckers at interprovincial borders.

Next week, there will be a Governors’ meeting with the Nation’s Minister of Transport, Mario Meoni, to discuss how to improve the sanitary control of trucks moving from one province to another. Initially, there could be random tests on truckers.

Governors such as those of Misiones, Entre Ríos and Corrientes yesterday stressed their concern over what is happening in Brazil, which is teeming with new positive cases. Carla Vizzotti, Minister of Health, has asked that as new vaccines arrive, they try to apply them to border staff, which is considered strategic since the objective is not to close the markets so as not to affect the economy.

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