Covid cases continue to rise in Argentina, rising 28% from previous week

Covid-19 infections are continuing to rise in Argentina, with confirmed cases up almost 28 percent over the last seven days, according to official data.

The National Health Ministry on Sunday announced 43,487 new coronavirus infections over the past week, with 49 virus-related deaths. In the preceding week, 33,989 positive cases had been reported, in addition to 47 deaths. 

The data means that weekly cases have increased by more than 284 percent, though the rate of acceleration has slowed in the previous week. 

Last Monday, Health Minister Carla Vizzotti declared that Argentina is facing a “fourth wave” of Covid-19 infections, more than 26 months after the virus first arrived in the country. She stressed that deaths and hospitalisations remained low, in large part thanks to Argentina’s mass vaccination programme.

"Today we are beginning a fourth wave of Covid-19 in Argentina, which finds us in a totally different situation," said Vizzotti last week, speaking at a meeting of the Federal Health Council with provincial health ministers in Villa La Angostura, Neuquén Province.

Vizzotti said that there had been an increase in cases following the cold spell that arrived in the middle of autumn. Nevertheless, she dismissed rumours that President Alberto Fernández's government is considering a new lockdown to curb contagion.

With the new data, 9,178,795 cases and 128,825 deaths from Covid-19 have accumulated since the beginning of the outbreak in Argentina in March 2020. 

The health portfolio reported that the number of Covid patients hospitalised in intensive care units has risen to 323 from last week's 300. Bed occupancy for all pathologies at public and private health centres nationwide rose slightly by one point to 42 percent.

The jurisdictions that reported the most deaths due to coronavirus in the last week were: Buenos Aires Province (33 and 60,136 cumulative), Buenos Aires City (7 and 12,611), Córdoba (3 and 7,855) and La Pampa (2 and 1,160).

— TIMES/NA