Q24N (Buenos Aires) Nighttime driving will be prohibited in Argentina as of this Friday and for three weeks, a measure that is applied for the first time in the country due to the exponential increase in covid-19 cases, President Alberto Fernández announced on Wednesday.
“Circulation is prohibited between 12 mn and 6 am of every day. According to the jurisdictions, the authorities may only extend these hours depending on the specificities of each place,” said the president in a message recorded from the official presidential residence, Olivos, where he is isolated for having been infected with the coronavirus.
The measure will be applied in areas of the country where there is a greater epidemiological risk, that is, in large urban centers, in particular, Buenos Aires and its periphery, where a third of the 45 million Argentines live.
“Argentina has entered the second wave. Only in the last seven days, the cases increased by 36% throughout the country and 53% in the AMBA (metropolitan area of Buenos Aires)”, assured Fernández, who declared himself “concerned about social relaxation, contradicting all protocols”.
With 22,039 new cases, Argentina reached a new record of infections in a single day this Wednesday. Authorities also reported 199 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing deaths to 56,832, with a total of 2,450,068 cases since the beginning of March 2020.
In the last week, Argentina is among the 10 countries with the highest number of new infections worldwide, the director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Carissa Etienne, warned this Wednesday.
“Just as a year ago I asked you to stay at home while we set up an abandoned health system, today I ask you to pay the utmost attention to health care responsibilities and protocols. By reinforcing this care, we will be able to advance better in the vaccination process that is underway,” the president stressed.
Until this Wednesday in Argentina 4.71 million vaccines have been applied. A total of 705,000 people have already received the two doses and 4 million the first..
And it has been determined as a priority population to vaccinate a third of the population – about 15 million people – among health personnel, the elderly and people with comorbidities, as well as security officials and teachers, among others.
