Argentina registers new historical record of Covid-19 cases (April 6)

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to official sources, Argentina registered this Tuesday 20,870 Covid-19 cases, its highest number of confirmed infections in 24 hours since the beginning of the pandemic.

The previous record was on October 21 last year, when there were 18,326 positives. This new peak occurs in the context of acceleration of positive cases during the last week, while the authorities maintain various measures to determine whether to take more measures in the face of this new wave of coronavirus in the southern country.

According to the Ministry of Health report, the number of positive cases rose to 2,428,029, as there were 163 more deaths, bringing the total number of deaths to 56,634.

There were 7,203 more cases than the previous day when authorities confirmed 13,667 infections.

The Argentine authorities have increased restrictions and health recommendations, although this Easter long weekend tourist activity was allowed.

In Argentina, 2,153,509 patients have already been discharged, while 3,652 people with a confirmed diagnosis of covid-19 remain in intensive care units.

The occupancy rate of intensive care beds for all types of pathologies is 56.1% at the national level, but 62.0% if only Buenos Aires and its populous periphery are considered.

So far, 9.11 million tests have been performed in Argentina to detect the virus, of which 46,037 were performed this Sunday.

VACCINATION DELAYED

Given the new wave’s arrival, the Argentine government decided to prioritize the first dose vaccination and defer for three months the second dose in all types of vaccines against the coronavirus it has so far.

With a population of about 45 million, Argentina started its Covid-19 vaccination campaign at the end of last December and has already received 7,266,500 doses of Covid-19 vaccines from various suppliers.

This is a lower quantity than the country expected to have for this time of the year. The Government itself has admitted the delays in the vaccination plan, which it justifies in the suppliers’ delays.

According to official data released on Tuesday, 4,404,175 doses have been applied.

A total of 3,712,009 people received the first dose of the vaccine, while 692,166 people were already inoculated with the second dose.

Source: efe/dw/brb