COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina
The COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. On 3 March 2020, the virus was confirmed to have spread to Argentina. a total of 196,530 people were confirmed to have been infected, and 3,596 people were known to have died because of the virus.
On 7 March, the Ministry of Health confirmed the country's first documented death, a 64-year-old man who had travelled to Paris, France, who also had other health conditions; the case was only confirmed as positive after the patient's demise.
On 19 March a nation-wide lockdown until 31 March was established in Argentina. The government later extended the lockdown to mid April, then 26 April; and on 25 April, President Alberto Fernández announced that the lockdown would be extended in major cities until 10 May. The lockdown was lifted throughout all the country, excepting the Greater Buenos Aires urban area, on 10 May, with Greater Buenos Aires locked down until 24 May, later extended to 7 June, and then 28 June, after a big jump in the number of new cases in this area. On 26 June, Fernández announced that the restrictions on movement in this area that were previously eased would be tightened again until 17 July due to a large spike in cases on the previous days. Finally, on 17 July, the President announced that the lockdown would be gradually loosened in several stages to lead to the return to normality, although the restrictions were extended again until 16 August.
Responses to the outbreak have included restrictions on commerce and movement, closure of borders, and the closure of schools and educational institutions. Clusters of infections and deaths have occurred in nursing homes, prisons and other detention centers, and urban areas. The number of tests increased over time, although there were some concerns as there was less testing than in other countries of the region such as Chile and Peru. Even so, the government's responses to the pandemic were among the best received by the population in the region.
Background
On 12 January, the World Health Organization confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, who was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019. The case fatality rate for COVID-19 has been much lower than the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak, but transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll.Timeline
February
After the cruise ship Diamond Princess was quarantined in the Port of Yokohama in Japan after 10 passengers were diagnosed with COVID-19 during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, among the passengers diagnosed positive was the first Argentine infected, a 61-year-old man travelling with his wife, who had no symptoms. The patient was later transferred to a hospital in Japan. The other seven Argentines on board, including his wife, remained on the cruise in quarantine until February 21. The man was finally released on February 17. He left Japan on February 24 and arrived in Argentina on February 26.March
A first case of the COVID-19 was confirmed in Buenos Aires on 3 March, in a 43-year-old man who had arrived two days earlier from Milan, Italy. Two days later, the second case was confirmed in a 23-year-old man living in Buenos Aires, who had recently returned from Northern Italy. Rapidly, on the next day the total cases increased to eight.The Ministry of Health confirmed the country's first death from coronavirus in the country on 7 March, a 64-year-old man who had travelled to Paris who also had other health conditions. The person was not among the eight already diagnosed with the disease and was diagnosed post-mortem.
On 11 March, the government also announced a mandatory 14-day-quarantine to every person that returned to Argentina from highly affected countries including China, South Korea, Japan, Iran, the United States and all of Europe. The first cases from local transmission were confirmed on the next day in Buenos Aires and the provinces of Buenos Aires, Chaco, and Córdoba. In Chaco, the first native transmission was also confirmed. The first patient with the virus in the country was discharged and left hospital in Buenos Aires the next day.
Tierra del Fuego was put on lockdown on 16 March, becoming the first province to do so. The provinces of Chaco, Misiones, Salta, Jujuy, Mendoza and Tierra del Fuego closed their borders on 18 March. On the next day, in the night of 19 March, President Alberto Fernández announced a mandatory lockdown, in effect from midnight on 20 March until 31 March., but on 29 March Fernández announced that the mandatory lockdown would be extended until April 12.
On 23 March, Ministry of Health officials reported the virus was spreading via "community transmission" in the City of Buenos Aires, its surroundings and some cities in Chaco, Tierra del Fuego and Córdoba provinces. March concluded with 1,054 confirmed cases and 27 fatal victims.
April
On 8 April,President Fernández announced that the mandatory lockdown would be extended beyond 12 April, with "flexibilisation" of few activities only. In the night of 10 April, Fernández confirmed that the lockdown would be extended until 26 April in major cities, and that the flexibilisation of restrictions in zones with lesser risk would be analysed. A third phase of the lockdown was later announced by the president on 25 March, extending it to major cities until 10 May.After appearance of three asymptomatic cases, Buenos Aires authorities introduced compulsory masking starting on April 14. Wearing a face mask was made obligatory for everyone on public transit and everyone who contacts with the public in their position. Violators would face a fine. Authorities also prohibited the sale of N95 masks to non-medical workers, suggesting the general public to use home-made masks instead.
April finally concluded with 4,415 confirmed cases, 218 deaths and 1,245 recoveries.
May–July
On 8 May, Fernández announced that the national lockdown would be "relaxed" throughout the country with the exception of Greater Buenos Aires, where the lockdown was extended first until 24 May., and later until 7 June, due to a big increase in the number of new cases in the previous days of the announcement. May ended with 16,838 confirmed cases, 539 deaths and 5,323 recoveries.On 9 June, The Government of the Province of Formosa reported the first case of COVID-19 in its province, leaving the province of Catamarca as the only province that did not report any cases at the time.
Martín Insaurralde, the Mayor of Lomas de Zamora was diagnosed with COVID-19 and isolated on 12 June. After having meetings with the mayor, the Ministry of Social Development was also tested. This led to the suspension of the previously planned president's visit to Catamarca, the only province that has not reported any cases to this date.
The first official data from ICU bed occupation became available on 24 June, with an occupation of 45 percent throughout the country. A few days later, it was informed that June concluded with 64,517 confirmed cases, 1,307 deaths and 22,015 recoveries from the virus.
On 3 July, The Governor of the Province of Catamarca confirmed its first case within the province. Catamarca was the last province to report its first case since the virus reached the country on 3 March.
At a press conference given by President Fernández, Governors Axel Kicillof, Jorge Capitanich, Gerardo Morales and Arabela Carreras, and the Mayor of the City of Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta on 17 July, it was announced that the lockdown would be loosened in the coming weeks, in an attempt to return to normality. Two weeks later, on 31 July, in another press conference, Fernández announced that the lockdown restrictions at that moment would continue until 16 August as there were a record of cases and deaths in the past days due to the virus. July concluded with 191,289 confirmed cases, 3,543 deaths and 83,767 recoveries.
Medical responses
The Ministry of Health summoned health professionals to provide health services in the context of the pandemic, in search of reinforcing the teams made up by the national and provincial governments. This call included nurses, biochemists, physiotherapists and physicians, in particular in the fields of medical clinic, cardiology, pneumonology, adult and pediatric intensive care, emergentology, pediatrics and general and/or family medicine. Proposals from professionals from other specialties were also received. Around 4,000 people joined a call from the University of Buenos Aires to summon volunteers to help on the influenza vaccination campaign, advanced medical students to be in triage in tents near hospitals where the patients will be first checked, volunteers to do a follow-up of isolated patients at home with a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19, and volunteers to work on logistics.The ANLIS-Malbrán began carrying out 300 daily COVID-19 tests. Later, after 820 confirmed cases were reached, the Ministry of Health started the delivery of 35,000 reactives to expand the number of laboratories for diagnosis to all 24 jurisdictions in order to decentralize the testings, making the number of testings increase over time. Private medical clinics will be able to do up to 7,500 daily tests to decompress the public health system. Previously, the delivery of the diagnostic result was taking four to five days on average for patients in private clinics.
As an effort to fight and contain the virus, the Ministry of Health implemented a plan of contact tracing in defined areas where an increase in the number of cases is detected or estimated. The plan launched first in Buenos Aires and was later extended troughout the country. The program, called Detectar, launched on May after a big jump in the number of cases in low socioeconomic class and densely populated neighborhoods in Greater Buenos Aires, known as villas.
On 17 April, a clinical trial based on plasma donation of recovered patients from COVID-19 was created to find out if the antibodies of a recovered patient could benefit those who are being infected. It began on hospitals and hemotherapy centers in Greater Buenos Aires and was later extended to the rest of the country.
Argentine scientists developed a quick diagnosis test to detect the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, approved by the National Administration of Medicines, Food and Medical Technology. The test, called NEOKIT-COVID-19, allows to obtain results in almost an hour and it offers a high degree of sensitivity and specificity. This test allows testing RNA samples and does not require complex equipment. It was expected that 10,000 tests would be produced within the first 10 days. On 13 June, a new announcement of another quick diagnosis test to detect the SARS-CoV-2 was made. Called ELA-chemstrip, it was developed by Argentine scientists from the National University of Quilmes and the National University of General San Martín.
On 31 May, it was announced that Argentine scientists were also working to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, a project subsidized by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation. On 10 July, pharmaceutical corporations Pfizer and BioNTech announced that the clinical trial for the COVID-19 vaccine BNT162 that was on phase I–II as of the day of the announcement, would begin on early-August in Argentina, soon after the trial began on Germany and the United States. After it would be approved by the ANMAT, the trial would take place at the Central Militar Hospital. The trial is made by mRNA constructs and consists of four vaccines, randomized, placebo-controlled, dose-finding and vaccine candidate-selection, and would begin its phase IIb-III after preliminary data from the previous phase were positive.
A COVID-19 hyperimmune serum based on equine polyclonal antibodies was developed by Argentine biotech company Inmunova. The antibodies were obtained by injecting a recombinant protein of SARS-CoV-2 in these animals, with in vitro testings demonstrating the ability to neutralize the virus. On 24 July, the trial entered its phase II–III after being approved by ANMAT.
Government responses
The government's responses to the pandemic was very well seen, including the mandatory lockdown and strict social distancing measures, resulting in a general better look in the number of cases and deaths than other countries in the region. The measures also brought some concerns with the economic impact that it could cause to the country. Even so, the way that president Fernández and its government handled the country's response to the spread of COVID-19 resulted in the best numbers of public approval since the president's assumption in December 2019. Argentina was among the Latin American countries that earned the best grades for their response to the pandemic, according to a poll conducted in the region, only behind Uruguay and Paraguay.Since late-May, a few protesters began to rally in Buenos Aires to demand end of the lockdown, ignoring social distancing rules, and with the call to prioritise the re-opening of Argentina's economy and some conspiratorial overtones, due to the small and medium size businesses and self-employed workers' economic struggle during this time. Despite the protests, a vast majority of Argentines are supportive of the lockdown, according to polls.
First measures
On 11 March, the government announced a mandatory 14-day-quarantine to every person that returned to Argentina from highly affected countries such as China, South Korea, Japan, Iran, the United States and all of Europe.On 15 March, it was announced that the government would close its borders for a total of 15 days to non-residents and national parks, and the suspension of public and private school classes in all levels and flights from highly affected countries for 30 days.
On 16 March, the province of Tierra del Fuego was put on lockdown, becoming the first province to do so. The provinces of Chaco, Misiones, Salta, Jujuy, Mendoza and Tierra del Fuego also decided to close their borders on 18 March.
Nationwide measures
Mandatory lockdown
On 19 March, President Alberto Fernández announced a mandatory lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus. It would take effect from 20 March until 31 March. It was among the strictest measures in the region.The "preventive and mandatory social isolation" included the following measures:
- Mandatory lockdown for all residents,
- The move of Malvinas Day from 2 April to 31 March,
- Allowance of purchases of foods, medicines and first need products,
- Transit control on the streets by Naval Prefecture, National Gendarmerie and Federal Police,
- Penalties to those that cannot justify their transit on the streets according to the Penal Code,
- Exception of the lockdown to state, health, food production, drugs production and oil industry workers and security forces,
- Creation of a government department that works on the pandemic and economic issues, and
- Guidelines to relieve the situation for non-formal sector.
The announcement of the lockdown was generally well received, although there were concerns with its economic impact in the already delicate state of Argentina's economy, with analysts predicting at least 3% GDP decrease in 2020. Image of Fernández increased during the first weeks of the lockdown according to some surveys, but later suffered a slightly decrease on April due to the prolongation of the lockdown. The University of Buenos Aires also made a survey, in which most people agreed to the measures taken by the president.
Fernández announced a one-time emergency payment of 10,000 pesos to lower-income individuals whose income was affected by the lockdown, including retirees. Because banks were excluded in the list of businesses that were considered essential in Fernandez's lockdown decree, they remained closed until the Central Bank announced banks would open during a weekend starting on 3 April.
Administrated lockdown
On 10 April, Fernández confirmed that the lockdown would be extended until 26 April under a "new phase" with new authorizations available for workers of some services such as banks, among others.Geographical segmentation
The third phase of the lockdown was announced on 25 April by president Fernández. The lockdown would resume to workers of private construction, medical and dental care, industry production and online commerce, lawyers, and accountants, among others, in some provinces such as Entre Ríos, Jujuy, La Pampa, Mendoza, Misiones, Neuquén, Salta, San Juan, Santa Cruz and Tucumán, with the respective health protocols. Cities with population over 500,000 inhabitants are still under mandatory lockdown due to the communitary transmission of the virus.Progressive reopening
On 8 May, President Fernández announced alongside the City of Buenos Aires' Chief of Government Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and Buenos Aires Province Governor Axel Kicillof, that the national lockdown would enter its fourth phase throughout all the country, allowing the reopening of factories and business. The Greater Buenos Aires zone will maintain the geographical segmentation phase due to the amount of cases that are still being registered in the area, but will allow children to go outside accompanied by an adult. The lockdown in the Greater Buenos Aires was later extended until 7 June after the number of cases in this area in the previous days showed a big increase. Later, on 4 June, the lockdown was extended again until 28 June in the Greater Buenos Aires area after the country just surpassed 20,000 cases. New activities allowed in the area included opening of shops in "low concentration" areas, outdoor walks with children on the weekends, outdoor physical activities from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., and religious services by streaming, among other measures taken by each municipality.A survey realised during the first days of May, expresses that the main concern of the surveyed people was the fear of virus contagion instead of the worries of a worsening in the economic situation. Also, another survey expressed that 3 out of 10 Argentines believe the WHO reports about the COVID-19 origins.
Lockdown tightening
President Fernández announced on 26 June that the restrictions on movement in Buenos Aires that were previously eased, would be tightened again since 1 July due to a spike in COVID-19 cases on Greater Buenos Aires. This phase of the lockdown would be extended until 17 July. According to Fernández, this urban area saw an increase of 147% of COVID-19 cases, and an increase of 95% on deaths due to the disease during the previous 20 days of the announcement. Fernández also confirmed that 97% of detected cases across the country occur in the Greater Buenos Aires. New restrictions include: public transportation allowed only for essential workers, prohibition of outdoor activities and stronger transit control on the streets. Allowance of purchases of foods, medicines and first need products would be the only activity allowed without any permission.Lockdown loosening
After the end of the previous phase of the lockdown in Greater Buenos Aires, President Fernández finally announced on 17 July that the lockdown would be gradually loosened in several stages to lead to the return to normality. New activities allowed include individual outdoor recreation activities, opening of local shops, car washers, clothing and footwear stores, hairdressing, waxing, manicure and pedicure shops in all neighborhoods, return of administrative staff to schools, individual prayers in temples, return of dog walkers, opening of libraries, and return of professional activities, such as lawyers and accountants, at least once a week. Public transportation would still be only allowed for workers in essential areas such as healthcare, security, gastronomy and others.As the lockdown was due to expire on 2 August, Fernández announced in a press conference on 31 July that the restrictions would continue until 16 August at least, after the country recorded a record daily tally of new cases and deaths on the previous day of the announcement.
Impact
Healthcare
On 23 March, Argentina's President Fernández asked the president of China, Xi Jinping, for 1,500 ventilators as Argentina had only 8,890 available. Previously, President Fernández announced the construction of eight emergency hospitals to deal with the pandemic on mid-March. 2,452 non-hospital beds were made available to patients in the final stage of recovering from the disease from hospitals in the province of Buenos Aires.During the pandemic, more than 400 health professionals were infected, making the 15 percent of the total confirmed cases as of 19 April. According to the Argentinian Intensive Care Society, there are only 1,350 physicians trained for that specialty. Later the Ministry of Health summoned different health professionals, making that number rise over 3,122. The province of Chaco has the worst rate of health professionals infected, with the 52 percent of the total cases of that jurisdiction.
Argentina's health system is also dealing with a Dengue fever outbreak, with more than 14,000 cases since 29 July 2019, and the worse measles outbreak since the end of its endemic circulation, after 174 cases and a death were confirmed since the last year.
Economy
Due to the national lockdown, the economical activity suffered a collapse of nearly 10% in March 2020 according to a consultant firm. The highest drop was of the construction sector versus March 2019. Every economical sector suffered a collapse, with finance, commerce, manufacturing industry and mining being the most affected. The agriculture sector was the least affected, but overall the economic activity for the first trimester of 2020 accumulates a 5% contraction. It is expected that the extension of the lockdown beyond April would increase the collapse of the Argentinian economy. On March, the primary fiscal deficit jumped to US$1,394 million, an 857% increase year-to-year. This was due to the public spending to combat the pandemic and the drop in tax collection due to low activity in a context of social isolation.President Fernández announced a 700 billion pesos stimulus package due to the pandemic, worth 2% of the country's GDP, and have focused on providing increased health spending, including for improvements in virus diagnostics, purchases of hospital equipment and construction of clinics and hospitals; support for workers and vulnerable groups, including through increased transfers to poor families, social security benefits, unemployment insurance benefits, and payments to minimum-wage workers; support for hard-hit sectors, including an exemption from social security contributions, grants to cover payroll costs; and subsidized loans for construction-related activities; forbearance, including continued provision of utility services for households in arrears; and credit guarantees for bank lending to micro, small and medium enterprises for the production of foods and basic supplies. The country may also have to face its ninth sovereign default in history due to the recession.
Measures also have been aimed at encouraging bank lending through lower reserve requirements on bank lending to households and SMEs, regulations that limit banks' holdings of central bank paper to provide space for SME lending, temporary easing of bank provisioning needs and of bank loan classification rules, and a stay on both bank account closures due to bounced checks and credit denial to companies with payroll tax arrears.
According to a survey, approximately 143,000 SMEs would not be able to pay salaries and fixed costs for the month, even with government assistance, so they might have to borrow or increase their own capital contribution. 35,000 of these companies are considering to close their business.
The International Monetary Fund reported that the COVID-19 crisis would plunge Argentina's GDP by 9.9 percent, after the country's economy contracted by 5.4 percent in first quarter of 2020, with unemployment rising over 10.4 percent in the first three months of the year, before the lockdown started.
Travel
After announced a mandatory quarantine to every person that returned to Argentina from highly affected countries, the government closed its borders, ports, and suspended flights. The Argentina 2000 airports signed an agreement with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation to reimburse 100% of the charges originated by the air cargo that enters the country that are directly or indirectly related to the COVID-19.Since 1 April, the government allowed the return of Argentine residents stranded abroad, with a maximum of 700 passengers per day. Seven border crossings opened temporarily to allow the repatriation of Argentina's inhabitants. Hotels for local tourism closed too, being only open to people staying in a situation of lockdown though the time it lasts. Several tourism-related cities also saw a massive migration from Argentine residents after the announcement of the national lockdown. It was severely criticized by the government.
According to the International Air Transport Association, Argentina is expected to loosen its travel ban earlier than the date that was previously announced by the government. Later, it was announced that the government is planning to authorise foreign flights with a maximum passenger capacity of 70%, as soon as mid-August.
Social impact
Argentina was reported to be among the countries in the region whose population adhered to the lockdown the most. Apple reported a decrease of 83 percent on vehicular mobility through April 26, although 4,900 people were arrested across the country for violating the lockdown. According to Google, since the lockdown, people movement in restaurants, shopping centers, cinemas and museums dropped by 86 percent, the presence of mobile phones on public transportation dropped 80 percent, and in offices a 57 percent. Meanwhile, the presence in residential zones increased by 27 percent.Education
Schools and universities closed indefinitely after the president's announcement of the lockdown. In response to the pandemic, classes moved to online distance learning. 14 million students have been affected by the school closures. Later, the government announced that was evaluating how they would open the schools in the future, and that they were working on the distribution of netbooks to students that do not have access to computers. The criteria for distributing them will be based on socioeconomic indicators.On June 9, the Ministry of Education expressed that 85% of students may be able to return to classes in August, though with special hygiene measures in place, but schools in the Greater Buenos Aires area will have to wait until infections in the region begin to drop off.
Public transportation
The government imposed a series of measurements for public transportation focused on the hygiene of the units and recommendation of travel only if it's essential. Public transportation services offered a Saturday-schedule until the start of the "administrated lockdown" on 13 April. Since this day, all public transportation services returned to the normal schedules, but still maintaining the hygiene measures to prevent the spread of the virus.On 4 May, the government announced a new protocol that orders that public transportation will only occupy 60 percent of its capacity. The combis and mini-buses services will also begin to work again since the begin of the mandatory lockdown.
After the use of public transportation in Greater Buenos Aires grew by 60 percent in early June, the government announced new measures to allow only "essential workers" for the use of train, bus and underground services. Train passengers were be forced to reserve seats in order to travel since 29 June. Under the lockdown tightening that came into effect on 1 July, public transportation use in Greater Buenos Aires dropped by 30 percent on the first days compared versus the previous week.
Media
Since the start of the national lockdown, broadcast television saw a 30 percent increase of viewership during the week between 17 and 22 March. The networks increased the airtime of talk shows and news programming, while reality shows were still in production.A fundraising special show aimed to the Red Cross for supplying hospitals and health centers aired throughout all six broadcast networks on 5 April. The show, called "United for Argentina", included celebrities and famous people from the Argentine media. Donations reached a total of 87,938,624 Argentine pesos.
The only telenovela that was airing on broadcast television before the beginning of the pandemic, Separadas, was removed from the schedule after its 19 March airing and production was suspended temporarily. Two months later, producing company Pol-Ka definitely cancelled the show due to "economic reasons", leaving Argentine television without any scripted programming.
The first cases of COVID-19 reached Argentine television in June. The first confirmed case was from El Nueve's sports journalist Guillermo Ferro. Later, three producers from Telefe's :es: El precio justo |El Precio Justo were also diagnosed, making the show to enter on hiatus and schedule reruns to air instead. El Precio Justo's hostess Lizy Tagliani later reported that she was diagnosed positive for COVID-19. Telefe also announced that talk show :es: Cortá por Lozano|Cortá por Lozano would be broadcast with the hostess and panelists from their homes as a preventive measure. An employee from América TV was also diagnosed with COVID-19 on 18 June. On 27 June, news channel C5N implemented a protocol to prevent new infections after one of their journalists, Fernanda Arena, tested positive for COVID-19.
Sports
On 12 March, FIFA announced that the first two rounds of the South American qualification for the 2022 World Cup due to take place in March 2020 were postponed to later dates. The same day, CONMEBOL announced that the Copa Libertadores would be temporarily suspended. Later, on 17 March, CONMEBOL announced that the 2020 edition of Copa América was postponed to 2021.On 13 March, the 2020 running of Rally Argentina was postponed. The MotoGP's Gran Premio Motul de la Republica Argentina was also scheduled to take place during the year but was later cancelled on 31 July.
On 15 March, President Fernández announced that, among other measures, he intended to keep soccer matches ongoing but without audience. The first match suspended by the Argentine Football Association was between Club Atlético Independiente and Club Villa Mitre from the Copa Argentina. It was supposed to be played on 17 March, but was moved to 1 April. On that same day, all categories of soccer were suspended indefinitely, being the match between Club Atlético Colón and Rosario Central the last played, on 16 March.
After months of uncertainty, a tentative date for the return of football was announced. It is expected that since July 13, the teams will be able to return to practice after the players, coaching staff and club employees are tested, following the steps that were taken in European football. The tournament could definitely return on mid-September.