Uruguay registered a new record number of coronavirus infections and deaths (Mach 22nd)

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The South American country reported 2,700 infections and 19 deaths in one day, bringing the total to 84,230 and 811 respectively.

Uruguay recorded on Monday, March 22nd, the highest number of coronavirus infections and deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

According to data from the National Emergency System (Sinae), 2,700 cases of covid-19 were detected in the last 24 hours, out of the 14,952 tests performed.

Of this total, 1,468 are from Montevideo, 383 from Canelones, 202 from Rivera, 102 from Salto, 97 from Rio Negro, 71 from Tacuarembó, 68 from San José, 58 from Artigas, 58 from Cerro Largo, 40 from Maldonado, 35 from Durazno, 34 from Treinta y Tres, 24 from Soriano, 17 from Colonia, 14 from Rocha, 12 from Lavalleja, 9 from Florida and 8 from Paysandú.

Uruguay confirmed this Monday the presence of the Brazilian variant of covid-19 in seven departments (provinces). According to Executive sources, this would explain the progressive increase of covid-19 cases in the country, which is facing a resurgence of the first wave, with several days with more than 1,500 cases per day.

The Interagency Working Group (IWG) on SARS-CoV-2 Surveillance, which is working on genomic sequencing, was the one that detected it. In a virtual press conference offered by the IAWG, author of the study, the experts warned about the constant mutations of the virus and the geographic dispersion it can reach.

According to a study carried out on 175 covid-19 positive samples sent to the Institut Pasteur in Montevideo, 24 of them were detected as possible carriers of the Brazilian variant.

“Without having epidemiological thread data of patients carrying P.1, the high percentage of samples identified with that variant (×15%) and its distribution in different departments of the country suggests a widespread circulation in the national territory,” the report details.

In the remaining 151 samples of the study, four cases of P.2 and one of the so-called British variant were also found.

The seven departments where the Brazilian variant was found are Artigas, Montevideo, San José, Rocha, Canelones, Río Negro and Salto, although the number analyzed does not mean that it has spread to the rest of the country.

The border with Brazil is one of the most worrying points for the Uruguayan authorities since the declaration of the sanitary emergency on March 13th, 2020 and, in fact, Rivera (north) is the worst of the country’s 19 departments, with 88.42 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (according to the Harvard index).

Experts had suspicions about the presence in Uruguay of the Brazilian variant, coming from Manaus, and even in recent days the Minister of Health himself, Daniel Salinas, commented that “there is a strain that has been mutating and that is P1”, while recognizing that it was “a new challenge” for his country.

In view of the seriousness of the case, the President of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, has called a Council of Ministers for Tuesday to study the situation and analyze measures to combat it, bearing in mind that next week is Tourism Week (or Easter Week) and that many Uruguayans travel to the eastern beaches or to other points in the interior of the country.

On March 1, the Ministry of Health started its vaccination plan with Pfizer and Coronavac doses arrived in the South American country, which have already been administered to 336,558 people, 9.60% of the population, as of 5.30 p.m. (20.30 GMT) this Monday.

Source: infobae