More than 100 fatalities from Covid-19 for second straight day

Argentina recorded 117 fatalities from Covid-19 on Tuesday – the second straight day that the tally had topped more than 100.

The Health Ministry also confirmed that the country had broken its record of confirmed cases in a 24-hour period with 5,344 infections. Just over 92 percent of the new cases were registered in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area (AMBA).

With these additions, the total number of infections recorded to date in Argentina now stands at 136,118, with 2,490 fatalities registered since the outbreak of the virus.

Officials said that 890 individuals hospitalised with the novel coronavirus are currently in intensive care units (ICUs) across the country, with bed occupancy in these wards at 55.5 percent nationwide and 65.4 percent in the AMBA region.

To date, 43 percent of those who have been infected Covid-19 have recovered, according to Health Ministry data.

The numbers arrived on the second day of a phased relaxation of lockdown rules in the AMBA region, which comes on the back of a two-week return to strict isolation. The capital and its populated periphery, where 14 million Argentines live, has been under lockdown in some form for the last four months.

Despite the surge in cases in the region, especially in Buenos Aires Province, President Alberto Fernández announced last Friday that restrictions for those living in capital and its surroundings would be relaxed gradually over the coming weeks.

Officials, however, have warned that a strict quarantine may be reimpose if the number of cases and fatalities continues to accelerate.

Many of Argentina's other provinces have already relaxed their lockdown rules, with social distancing measures maintained.

Authorities in Jujuy Province, which also relaxed rules after its own period of mandatory and social isolation, said that it would return to a strict lockdown this week after registering 13 deaths on Tuesday.

– TIMES/AFP/NA