Uruguayan government not considering new border closure due to increase in covid-19 cases

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – While Ecuador has outed itself in recent days and weeks as authoritarian and ill-informed in the face of Omicron with hysterical, ineffective, and discriminatory covid measures, Uruguay shows once again that it is not only politically and economically but also intellectually one of the leading countries in the region.

President Luis Lacalle Pou met Monday with Health Minister Daniel Salinas to assess the increase in Covid-19 cases.

“The great protection that the country had was the high number of people vaccinated,” he said at the outset. Uruguay spends almost US$1 million per day on PCR testing, he added.

For his part, Minister Salinas pointed out that the three doses of the Covid-19 vaccine are a significant boost to avoid complications of the disease. “In closed places, it is important to wear face masks, avoid crowds and pay special attention to vulnerable people with comorbidities. For this group, social interaction must be reduced,” he said.

He informed that this Tuesday, January 11, 140,000 quotas and hours will be available for the third dose.

Lacalle then referred to the start of classes. “Let’s hope that by the time school starts, most of the children will be enrolled,” he said.

“We are dealing with a more contagious variant (Omicron), which makes controls more difficult,” he said.

Lacalle Pou clarified that a possible closure of the border is not being considered, despite the sharp increase in daily cases. He explained that they are working to create health corridors so that those who want to return to their country but have to undergo quarantine can do so.

The president ruled out taking new measures despite the daily increase in cases. “It has been suggested that measures be taken, but we don’t know what they are. We can imagine that some who have implemented mandatory quarantine could take that route. Sometimes not taking direct action is also a measure. With the non-pharmacological preventive measures, in addition to vaccines, if the recommendations of the Ministry of Public Health are followed, we have some security,” he said. He clarified that the current situation is far from saturation.

Salinas informed that Omicron is the predominant variant in Uruguay. “It is certainly much more advanced; it has conquered the field and is the predominant variant,” he said.

The president pointed out that if a fourth booster dose is administered, the necessary amount of vaccine doses are available. “Hopefully, [the fourth dose] will not be necessary, as we have learned from some publications,” he said.

He also clarified that the number of daily infections would continue to be reported. “We were close to suspending the count of cases. We decided to continue the count so no one would think we were hiding the numbers,” he said.