Uruguay, from an “example” to become the country …

Uruguay has ceased to be the successful example of the fight against the pandemic and last weekend became the country that leads infections in the world. Like Chile, it faces the paradox of being both one of the most advanced in the vaccination campaign and one of those with the most cases in relation to its population.

According to the Our World in Data page, which systematizes official information on the pandemic, Uruguay tops the list with 837 new cases per million inhabitants. Such a figure exceeds the record of the rest of the countries and confirms a trend which has already been accentuated for two months.

The Uruguayan Ministry of Health reported that to date 117,757 cases, 1,101 deaths and 89,035 recovered have been recorded.. Only during Holy Week, which was touristy, 186 people died, a figure that exceeds the total recorded throughout 2020, which was 174.

Until February, Uruguay remained one of the least affected countries in terms of the number of infections and deaths, which was partly explained by its size, as it has only 3.5 million inhabitants. But statistics began to rise as they felt the impact of the arrival of the Brazilian variants, especially the one that emerged from Manaus, which is more contagious and dangerous.

Regarding vaccines, Uruguay has already vaccinated 20% of its population. In Latin America, it is exceeded only by Chile, which reaches 36%.

The health emergency also triggered an internal crisis for President Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou, who until now, under neoliberal assumptions, assumed to have succeeded in bringing the pandemic under control without applying mobility restrictions while respecting “freedom” and trusting the “responsibility” of citizens.

On the part of the opposition Frente Amplio, voices calling for more drastic measures like those applied in other countries have already multiplied, in particular the closure of shops and quarantines so that the population remains at home, to which the president resists so as not to affect the economy.

But anyway, the impact of the pandemic is visible: In 2020, the economy fell 5.9%, representing a man to 17 years of uninterrupted growth achieved since 2003. Meanwhile, exports fell by 16.2% and imports of 10.8%.