New COVID-19 restrictions have been imposed in and round Buenos Aires in effort to stem current rise in infections.
Argentina has acquired a cargo of 864,000 AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines via the COVAX international vaccination programme, the federal government mentioned on Sunday, a day after demonstrations broke out in opposition to lockdown measures imposed within the Buenos Aires space.
The doses from the Netherlands come after Argentina acquired 218,000 jabs final month via COVAX, which goals to make sure lower-income nations have equitable entry to much-needed vaccines.
The South American nation has administered 6.2 million jabs since its vaccine roll-out started in December of final 12 months, whereas round 800,000 persons are thought-about totally immunised after receiving two doses.
Argentines took to the streets on Saturday, nonetheless, to protest in opposition to new coronavirus-related restrictions in and across the capital, Buenos Aires, that got here into impact on Friday.
The brand new measures, which embody an 8pm curfew, college closures and a ban on actions in indoor public areas, are anticipated to final via the top of the month.
Waving Argentinian flags and shouting slogans in opposition to President Alberto Fernandez, many demonstrators raised opposition to a call to droop in-person education for 15 days, which comes into impact on Monday.
The restrictions have an effect on the capital and its peripheries, an space house to fifteen million individuals.
Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, head of the town authorities, mentioned final week that Buenos Aires “completely disagree[s] with the choice of the nationwide authorities to shut colleges”.
“Yesterday, the nationwide authorities determined to interrupt the mechanism of dialogue and consensus that we had for greater than a 12 months,” Larreta mentioned throughout a information convention. “I wish to be very clear: we weren’t consulted about any of the measures taken.”
Fernandez, the president, mentioned Argentina wanted to “acquire time” to deal with the surging pandemic.
“The virus is attacking us and is way from giving in,” he mentioned when he introduced the brand new curbs.
Final week, the Pan American Well being Group mentioned instances of COVID-19 have been rising in Argentina, amongst different international locations in Latin America.
The current surge in infections and hospitalisations has been spurred partly by the invention of latest, extra simply transmissible variants of the virus throughout the area, together with a pressure first found in Brazil.
Argentina has reported greater than 2.67 million instances of COVID-19 and no less than 59,000 deaths, based on knowledge from Johns Hopkins College.
Nonetheless, some enterprise homeowners mentioned they might not abide by the brand new restrictions in Buenos Aires.
“The president does what he has to do. I don’t agree with these measures,” a 63-year-old bar proprietor named solely as Marcelo within the neighbourhood of Almagro informed the Reuters information company. “Final 12 months was very powerful.”
Argentina has seen a steep rise in poverty in the course of the pandemic.
The Nationwide Institute of Statistics and Census mentioned earlier this month that about 12 million individuals in city areas have been unable to afford a basket of primary meals or important providers within the second half of 2020.