Argentina became the country most affected by coronavirus cases that has the lowest level of tests in the world

Pablo Sigal

09/16/2020 - 6:01

• Clarín.com

• Society

A few days after the

of quarantine, with nuances but uninterrupted, the figures on what has been done so far to face the pandemic show data that, in part, explains why the country has been condemned to

: Argentina has become the place in the world with the most coronavirus cases per inhabitant that

In other words, there is no other country that has accumulated

and, at the same time, has put

at the service of prevention:

.

The scenario changes according to each province, but it is the national average based on official data.

If Argentina did not have more cases and more deaths from coronavirus, it was precisely

, which has kept the population confined since March 20 and whose result (low mortality) is a consequence, above all, of the confinement of the

Testing little was a political and health decision: where to allocate the scarce resources of the State.

A good part of Argentine spending has served to

.

That is, to improve the ability to "tackle" patients, but not the possibility of preventing them from increasing, or from

.

The government

to families locked up in their homes and to inactive merchants.

The figures indicate that Argentina has

of coronavirus per million inhabitants and has carried out

per million.

If you look at the countries that have had a similar proportion of infections to ours, the differences are eloquent.

v 1.5

Tests and infections

Tap to explore the data

Source:

Infographic:

Spain, which has 12,900 cases of Covid per million inhabitants and

in absolute number of infections, has carried out 230 thousand tests per million inhabitants.

That is, a volume 

.

The case of Colombia also allows us to see the contrast in the access to resources destined to an objective that, very early in the pandemic, the WHO had recommended: "Test, test, test."

With

, Colombia has carried out

per million.

Peru, with 22 thousand cases per million inhabitants, carried out 107 thousand tests per million.

The

the world that had 

are, in general, marginal territories in terms of the number of inhabitants, or those in which the pandemic has not been a great concern, basically because it has hit them less.

An exception in this scenario is Bolivia, which with almost 11 thousand infections per million (12 percent below Argentina) carried out an average of

.

The consequence is seen in a result that has not been good: 7,390 deaths for 127 thousand total cases.

What other nations did fewer tests than Argentina?

Bangladesh, but has added just 2,067 cases of coronavirus per million inhabitants;

Pakistan, with 1,364 cases;

The Philippines, with 2,452 cases;

Ecuador, with 6,755 cases;

Guatemala, with 4,570 cases per million;

and Honduras;

with 6,906 cases.

The last two countries, even, so far have

.

Below that level there are several more examples.

In total, 68 countries carried out fewer tests than Argentina, but none of those that make up that list shows as many infections per million inhabitants as ours.

At the other extreme of this reality are the countries with

, and that at the same time did not use quarantine as a practically exclusive and dominant resource against the pandemic.

Germany leads that elite, with 3,159 positives and 160,000 tests per million inhabitants;

Italy had 4,798 cases and 164 thousand tests per million.

Canada, 3,664 cases and 164,000 tests;

France, 6,050 and 153 thousand;

Sweden, 8,638 and 123 thousand.

Testing more

, but it changes the proportions of ingredients that are used to put together the cocktail of potential success or failure.

And that balance for or against, in the end, will not be measured only by

of the pandemic, but also by the social, economic and

consequences

(neglect of other diseases) that have determined the choice of each policy .

For this reason, the best grades are not usually seen in countries where the option was 

, but in those in which a

between both tools

prevailed

.

Great Britain is a good example of the opposite case to Argentina: it has 5,507 cases and 298 thousand tests per million, but

.

There, the initial bet on so-called "herd immunity" as a strategy

South Africa is a witness case to show that

: so far it has accumulated almost 11 thousand cases per million inhabitants and has carried out 66 thousand tests per million.

That is, 88 percent more resources than Argentina allocated to prevention.

The death rate

.

However, there the government had to prematurely recalculate the continuity of the confinement, when at the beginning of June (3 and a half months ago) a court declared the unconstitutionality of the unrestricted quarantine.

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