What is happening in Uruguay with the coronavirus?

He was a role model when the pandemic broke. Uruguay, with its 3.5 million inhabitants, had managed to overcome the onslaught of the coronavirus at the beginning of 2020. Today, it is one of the countries with the most deaths due to covidus per million inhabitants . What happened?

Objective data transforms the reality of the country in black and white: the 19 Uruguayan departments (provinces) are at the “red” level, a color assigned by the Global Health Institute at Harvard which means that per 100,000 inhabitants, there are more than 25 infected compared to “green” which drops to 5.

The death toll also speaks to gravity: according to Our World in Data, the country has 17.31 people killed per million population, ranking on the global podium for deaths due to covid. In Argentina, the index is 9.22.

The reasons

The debacle has several “fathers” or “mothers”. For starters, the P.1 variant arrived from neighboring Brazil. 80 percent of the mutation circulating in Uruguay is that of Manaus.

Proof that the toxic cascade is coming from the north is the situation in the department of Artigas, on the border with Brazil, where infections per 100,000 inhabitants climb to 162.65.

In Rivera, another border department where the only physical barrier with Brazil it’s a street, contagions reached a level of catastrophe only contained with the arrival of vaccines. There, the vaccination was massive. 60% of the population has been vaccinatedand cases have dropped dramatically.

The other “parent” of the “creature” is Mobility.

“There is mobility. Public transport continues to operate and it is full, ”he explained to Bugle Uruguayan journalist Antonio Ladra.

The decision to reduce the number of buses to reduce the mobility of people only resulted in crowding passengers into the few vehicles that continued to roll.

For this reason, Montevideo has reached an agreement with the national government for an injection of money to put 100% of the bus fleet into service so that people who go to work do so in healthy conditions, Ladra explains.

Inter-ministerial transport also continues to operate normally. And another factor that fuels infections is the people who go to work because you have no other choice.

“The offices are closed. But the people who clean the house normally come there,” Ladra says by way of example.

Quarantine, no

The mobility and tension of Manaus largely explain the infections in a country where there is no strict quarantine. President Luis Lacalle Pou refuses to decree it despite demands from the opposition and suggestions from the Honorary Scientific Advisory Group, which has advised to shut down for a while and speed up the vaccination process.

“That is to say completely thrown awayLadra said, even as the situation worsened.

Quarantine is not the only point of friction between the government and the opposition.

The government approved the 135-article “Urgent Considerations Act” in its first year in office, which dismantles many broad front policies. The opposition is now gathering signatures to call for a repeal referendum. To do this, they must obtain by July 9, at least 680 thousand signatures, 25% of the register.

The chances of the opposition getting the signatures they are tall, according to polls.

This, as Ladra explains to Bugle, will lead the country “for the next few months from July and in the midst of a pandemic to an early election campaign, because when people are called to vote, what plebiscite will not be the law but government management “.

Protocols

But Uruguay is not living at the rate of “all free”. There are protocols that must be followed although no fine for those who decide not to wear a chin strap.

Protocols state that only one person per family group can enter a business and will not be able to do so if they are not wearing a mask. Sports clubs are closed. There are no football matches. Cinemas and theaters are also closed. Social gatherings should be free and in groups of no more than ten. Measures that seem familiar on this side of the river.

And the lessons, suspendedThey will restart in person in stages and slowly.

In general, people follow the protocols. He even wears chin straps when not strictly necessary, for example, when cycling along the Rambla on the banks of the river, where the breeze protects.

But the virus, as has happened in other parts of the world such as Italy, dodges protocols, runs faster and wins the game. The key is to vaccinate.

Vaccination, hope

Uruguay carries out a successful vaccination campaign. And there are hopes. The country is working with three vaccines. One is Pfizer’s, which was aimed at healthcare workers and people over the age of 70. This has caused a drastic drop in infections among doctors and nurses.

The other two vaccines are Sinovac and AstraZeneca. The Chinese still have some controversy over its effectiveness, at least with the first dose. And that of Oxford, which arrived in the country via the Covax system, was fought by several Uruguayans who decided not to apply it, which resulted in the loss of some doses.

More than 20 percent of the population has already been vaccinated, at a daily rate of about 13,000 to 14,000 doses. And the next step is to start vaccinating young people, especially since the anti-vaccination movement is strong in Uruguay (20%), and if this group is not vaccinated, the herd immunity it will be far from being achieved.

Barks is particularly surprised by the death toll. In a country with few inhabitants, an average of around 50 deaths per day is scary. Intensive therapies are not saturated, but their distribution throughout the country it is not uniform and this forces the transfer of critical patients from saturated ICUs to others with free beds.

Today, it is estimated that between 60 and 70 percent of intensive care beds in Uruguay are occupied by covid patients.

Unemployment insurance

The Lacalle Pou government has relaxed the rules for granting unemployment insurance during a pandemic, which normally lasts one year and covers 60% of the salary.

With the pandemic, partial insurance is granted, renewable. But this remedy only works for him worker on white.

People of culture, for example, like musicians, have no palliative. “They were very complicated,” Ladra says.

Several stores such as bars and restaurants had to close. In the old town of Montevideo, the landscape of the low shutters is bleak. The people who used to work in the downtown offices and are now at home He doesn’t come down to lunch anymore.

You see more people on the street. “People who fell out of the system”Ladra describes it. Families with their lives in tow walk the streets. “You see people who have built their little house on the street, they go with their suitcases, and you see them reading, listening to the radio,” he says.

But despite everything, the popularity of Lacalle Pou is undefeated and enjoys 60% approval levels.

Former President Tabaré Vazquez left his government with 61% approval, an unprecedented figure at the end of a term.

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