Uruguay Has Latin America's Highest Rate of New COVID-19 Cases

President Luis Lacalle's Minister Council met on Tuesday to take measures at the worst moment of the pandemic in Uruguay, a country that recorded 2,700 COVID-19 infections and 14,952 active cases in the previous day.

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This nation could soon face the collapse of its health care system, as the intensive care units have exceeded an occupancy rate of 62 percent. 

The Interagency Working Group for SARS-CoV-2 Surveillance presented a report stating that the Brazilian variant had been detected in seven departments. 

Just a week ago, however, President Lacalle did not take drastic epidemiological measures and only appealed to the people's "responsible freedom" to control the epidemiological situation.

Currently, the Latin American countries having the highest daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people are Uruguay (323), Brazil (312), and Chile (264), according to Johns Hopkins University data as of March 14.

The meme reads, "Record number of contagions in Uruguay: the official pandemic plan failed. After months in which the government boasted of having contained the pandemic, the control was lost as confirmed by the 2,700 cases registered this Monday and the evolution of the last weeks."

The Uruguayan Medical Union (SMU) asked the Lacalle administration to reduce mobility for three weeks before Easter Week begins, a holiday in which citizens could occupy 100 percent of the country's tourist destinations.

Since the detection of the first COVID-19 cases in March 2020, the authorities have not decreed quarantines or curfews in Uruguay, a country where face masks are mandatory only in public transport, official buildings, and commercial establishments.

At present, however, this South American country has regulations that prohibit crowds for health reasons, suspend amateur sports, reduce by half the occupancy rate of interdepartmental transport, limit the capacity of theaters to 30 percent, and suspend compulsory attendance in classes.