As a result of the fast spread of the Omicron strain in Argentina, testing centers are saturated; 109,608 Covid-19 positive cases were reported on Thursday.
RELATED:
Argentina Assumes CELAC Pro Tempore Presidency for 2022
Thursday's report of positive Covid-19 cases breaks the highest record since the start of the pandemic for the third consecutive day, in a country dealing with an accelerated rise of coronavirus infections since December is now among other countries in Latin America where COVID-19 is rapidly progressing.
Carla Vizzotti, Health Minister, suggested that people who have been in contact with an infected person and not presenting any symptoms should isolate themselves and avoid going to testing centers, given the accumulation on the outside of testing centers across the country.
"I think some measures need to be taken. It seems to me that everything is too loose and people are not taking care of themselves. Now we are starting to see more facemasks, but a fortnight ago, it was like there was no pandemic," a 21-year-old music student, Sol Castaño, who was among the people waiting to be tested after having fallen ill, said to AFP.
Together with Santiago Cafiero, Carla Vizzotti and Carlos Tomada, the Chancellor and the Ambassador of Mexico, and Liliana Rossbach Suárez, we are making progress in the launch of the Latin American space agency and cooperation related to the development of vaccines.
Vizzotti noted that 72 percent of the population have received the complete program of two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, adding that "a new variant emerged with a different situation, with an extraordinary transmissibility but with a much lower severity."
On December 5, the first case of the Omicron variant in Argentina was detected, but hospitalizations and fatalities remained low. Yet over the last week, infections grew by 115 percent.
Sonia Tarragona, Cabinet chief at the Health Ministry, stated that "Omicron is bringing us many surprises. We don't know what the ceiling is going to be. There is no way to stop transmission."