- Title: Argentina marks 100,000 coronavirus cases amid lockdown
- Date: 12th July 2020
- Summary: TIGRE, ARGENTINA (JULY 12, 2020) (REUTERS) CHILD ON TWO WHEELED HOVERBOARD PEOPLE WALKING IN PARK VARIOUS OF PERSON CROSSING RIVER IN BOAT PEOPLE IN PARK VARIOUS OF EMPTY STREETS AND CLOSED SHOPS BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (JULY 11, 2020) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) LOCAL RESIDENT, GRISELDA AGUIRRE, SAYING: "I think the quarantine is going to stay the same and that's good. If it's for the best, then it's good, it's good that it continues. I don't know about how it was at first when they wouldn't even let us go out to the corner, but they gave people the opportunity to go running and they messed up. So, if the people aren't conscientious of our being under quarantine because of a disease then it's an issue of the people (themselves). But it's good, I think the quarantine is good." PEOPLE WALKING IN DOWNTOWN BUENOS AIRES (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) LOCAL RESIDENT, MARTIN GIUNTA, SAYING: "We've been under quarantine for a long time, but we've also been expecting this moment to come (100,000 cases). It's really a lot of cases, but people are also a little impatient, it's a little bit of a tug of war of emotions, but I'm hopefully that it's going to go better for us than other countries like Brazil which is the clear example of what you shouldn't do." EZEIZA, ARGENTINA (JULY 11, 2020) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF HOSPITAL EXTERIOR VARIOUS OF AMBULANCE BEING DISINFECTED ARGENTINE INTENSIVE CARE PHYSICIAN, DR. MAURO GROSSMAN, SPEAKING WITH JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ARGENTINE INTENSIVE CARE PHYSICIAN, DR. MAURO GROSSMAN, SAYING: "We believe this peak will plateau and not decrease for a while. That is the most dangerous thing, being at peak for a long time, that is what is going to make beds fill up much faster and the intensive care beds get quickly occupied." BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (JULY 11, 2020) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF LABORATORY TAKING SAMPLES OUT OF BOX TO BE TESTED FOR CORONAVIRUS VARIOUS OF TECHNICIAN TESTING SAMPLES
- Embargoed: 27th July 2020 00:04
- Keywords: Argentina cases confirmed coronavirus deaths infections milestone number rate surpass
- Location: BUENOS AIRES, EZEIZA & TIGRE, ARGENTINA
- City: BUENOS AIRES, EZEIZA & TIGRE, ARGENTINA
- Country: Argentina
- Topics: Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA003CMI7GAV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Argentina exceeded 100,000 cases of novel coronavirus infections on Sunday (July 12) as it struggles to contain spiraling case rates despite a strict quarantine imposed on the capital Buenos Aires and its surroundings.
The health ministry said 2,657 new cases confirmed overnight took the total to 100,166.
The South American country imposed a strict quarantine in mid-March to stop the pandemic. It relaxed restrictions slightly in May but then reinstated them in late June for Buenos Aires and its surroundings due to a spike in cases.
The death toll in Argentina from COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, is 1,845, a far cry from the 71,469 in Brazil by Sunday and the 11,682 in Peru.
But confirmed case numbers moved into four figures daily in early June and for the past four days have hit at least 3,000 daily.
Carla Vizzotti, deputy health minister, said the lockdowns would be maintained while hospitals continued to fill up.
"What we want to do is...decrease virus transmission and buy more time for the health service to be able to respond," she said.
Mauro Grossman, an intensive care doctor at Ezeiza Hospital in Buenos Aires, told Reuters he believed the peak was approaching. "We believe this peak will plateau and not decrease for a while," he said. "That is the most dangerous thing, being at peak for a long time, that is what is going to make beds fill up much faster and the intensive care beds get quickly occupied."
Some 12.81 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed worldwide, and 565,231 people have died, according to a Reuters count.
The United States has the highest number of cases in the world, with 3.26 million and 134,654 deaths. Other countries with high rates of infections include Brazil, India and Russia.
The coronavirus has also hit Argentina's economy hard, when it was already heading into its third year of recession at a time when it seeks to restructure $65 billion in debt
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