Fabian Debesa
06/03/2020 - 18:08
- Clarín.com
- Society
Since the “active search” and the “house-by-house” raking began, the appearance of coronavirus infections in popular neighborhoods of the Province has not stopped growing . Three months after the first case of Covid-19 in Argentina, two out of every ten infected registered in Buenos Aires live in slums. The latest official data released by the Ministry of Health establishes that this Wednesday there were 1,231 positives from these impoverished population centers over the more than 6,600 in the entire Buenos Aires territory.
Another fact that was known in the last hours: two inhabitants of Villa Azul (on the border of Quilmes and Avellaneda) died from the virus that spread from the Far East and became a pandemic. They are the first villagers to report themselves as deceased in the Province, although the number may be partial. It is that before May 10, the Buenos Aires statistics did not differentiate the housing characteristics of the patients.
One of the deceased was 69 years old and had previous health problems. "He had diabetes, hypertension and was admitted to the Fiorito Hospital," it was reported. The other victim, 77 , suffered from chronic liver disease and was housed in the Iriarte hospital. The man started with symptoms on May 22 and three days later he approached a health unit installed in the neighborhood as part of the DetectAr operation.
Villa Azul was blocked after an outbreak of infections. There were two coronavirus deaths within the settlement. (EFE)
The sanitarians who advise Axel Kicillof had advanced this panorama. And the explosion of the virus in the punished sectors of the Autonomous City activated the sensors in Buenos Aires, where there are 1,450 populations with high social vulnerability distributed in the suburbs. 345 thousand families live there in fragile conditions, with difficulties in accessing basic services and a high index of poverty and indigence.
The joint operations of health agents from the Nation, Province and municipalities began then. Brigades of nurses, doctors and assistants went to look for cases in direct contact with the neighbors. In just over three weeks they surveyed 45 thousand residents and then the numbers began to grow.
As of May 10, the percentage of those affected living in these neighborhoods out of the total was 4% . On the 22nd of that month the percentage jumped to 14 ; on May 29 it was 16.2 and by the second day of June it was already at 18.5 %. The progression will continue to grow, the technicians assure, because the supervision tasks on that sector of the population will continue in this phase of the epidemiological strategy.
"The objective is to detect people with symptoms, isolate them, attend to them and make a control over the close contacts of each one of them," explained the Minister of Health, Daniel Gollán.
The most extreme measure was taken in Villa Azul . There, 53 cases were detected in a weekend , and the Province decided to block access and put the inhabitants in quarantine for 15 days. The police erected fences at the entrances and began with the distribution of food for the almost 5,000 residents. The weekend would end the restriction. Health officials believe that the focus was turned off. Or at least it would be controlled when the number reached 211 and in neighboring Itatí it stabilized at 35.
Now another complex site appeared . In the José Luis Cabezas village , located on one of the limits between Berisso and Ensenada, 32 positive plague cases were found. This Wednesday afternoon, the authorities decided to "partially block" the neighborhood where 1,200 people live on both sides of a railway line. On one of the sectors of the property where the majority of cases were concentrated there will be "epidemiological control". Reach 200 neighbors who will not be able to leave the neighborhood. They will be assisted with food and medicine for two weeks.
La Plata. Correspondent.
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