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Locked up for 24 days in an isolation center for being close contact of a case of covid-19 in Argentina

2021-01-27T15:07:48.521Z


Formosa, in the north of the country, is the province of the country with the fewest deaths from coronavirus, but at the cost of a restrictive health policy denounced by human rights organizations


The 50th anniversary of Formosa stadium, turned into a center of isolation due to the pandemic.

On December 30, the police rang the bell at Sandro Cabana's house, on the outskirts of the Argentine city of Formosa.

He did not have any symptoms of covid-19, but one of the passengers on the bus he had taken days before tested positive and the agents told him that he had to accompany them to take a PCR test and find out if he had been infected.

“They lied to us.

They said that in two or three hours we would be back at home, but they took us to an isolation center where we stayed for 24 days, with three negative swabs, ”this 25-year-old electrician denounces by telephone.

He speaks in the plural because he assures that the twenty occupants of the bus suffered the same fate.

None had coronavirus, but all had to remain locked up for more than three weeks in one of the spaces set up in this province in northern Argentina.

Human rights organizations have denounced the excessive use of mandatory quarantines in Formosa.

The provincial government forces people with positive covid-19 (with mild or asymptomatic symptoms) to stay in "isolation centers with people who do not have them, exposing them to contagion", warns Amnesty International.

If they have sufficient financial means, they can resort to a hotel, but it is a minority option: 42.4% of the population of Formosa is poor, above the national 40.9%.

Isolating yourself at home is prohibited except for those over 60 years of age or in cases with medical pathologies.

“December 31 was one of the ugliest days I remember because imagine spending that party in there and not knowing if I had been infected or not.

We stayed eight days until they told us that our result was negative, ”Cabana complains.

According to his account, for 24 days he shared a makeshift room with three strangers on the top floor of a school in Formosa.

Their families brought them clothes, because they had come out with nothing.

They had to form long lines to go to the bathroom, also used by other people who did not know if they had contracted the virus or not.

They could not go down to the lower level or access the patio or any outdoor space.

"They told us that if we tried to leave they would take us to jail," he says.

Dozens of people from Formosa have denounced similar situations in recent weeks, which have led to public protests and judicial presentations at the provincial, national and international levels.

One of them was filed by the councilor and lawyer Gabriela Neme, arrested when leading a protest in front of one of the schools converted into isolation centers.

Another is the precautionary measure requested by the Formosan opposition senator Luis Naidenoff before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

"Its objective is to reverse the gross violations of the fundamental rights of people who remain isolated and end the threats, harassment and attacks against the integrity of the people of Formosa so that they can quarantine their homes," the legislator announced through of social networks.

We are in school number 224. There are 16 people for a presumed close contact, 21 days, with 4 negative swabs waiting for a 5th.

There is discomfort, a sick person, a 2-year-old baby.

To what extent does this become illegitimate deprivation of liberty?

FREE NOW pic.twitter.com/YMYx4n8XQ2

- gabriela neme (@gabrielaneme) January 26, 2021

The provincial government of Formosa defends its health policy supported by statistics: 807 people have been infected with covid-19 since the start of the pandemic and nine have died.

It is the lowest figure in the entire country.

In the province of Neuquén, with a population only slightly higher, there are 51,537 infected and 771 deaths.

“We are not in any situation, we are in a pandemic.

Formosa has excellent concrete, palpable and measurable results in covid ”, defended this Monday the spokesman for the provincial strategy against covid-19, Jorge González.

The Peronist Gildo Insfrán, governor of Formosa for 25 years, has invited official human rights organizations to visit the province and observe the health strategy first-hand.

"The national and provincial opposition and their related media have once again deployed a false campaign against Formosa," Insfrán denounced on Twitter.

"We are proud of the great collective effort that we are making throughout the territory with thousands of people committed to the implementation of sanitary measures," he adds.

We have absolutely nothing to hide.

On the contrary, we are proud of the great collective effort that we are making throughout the territory with thousands of people committed to the implementation of sanitary measures and compliance by the population.

- Gildo Insfrán (@insfran_gildo) January 26, 2021

"They use the numbers to say that it is the best health policy in the country, but with such low levels of contagion and death, they could make the measures more flexible and not keep them at these extreme and restrictive levels," says the Deputy Director of Amnesty International, Paola García Rey .

"We very much regret the political use that is being made of this situation," admits García Rey.

Since the complaints began to be made public, hygienic conditions have improved, but “the sanitary conditions of isolation are not in place” due to the shared use of spaces such as bathrooms and dining rooms.

“Faced with this situation, people are desperate.

The doors are guarded by the police, who do not let anyone in or out, ”he continues.

The international organization's concern about the health management of Formosa dates back to months ago, when its strict border closure left more than 8,000 people stranded outside the province.

Faced with the official refusal, a father drowned while trying to swim across the river to see his three-year-old daughter.

Only after a ruling by the Supreme Court, the authorities enabled an entry system that also requires a 14-day stay in an isolation center or, as a paid alternative, a hotel.

That is the case of María Laura Rodríguez and her two daughters, aged seven and eight.

This Formoseña says that the police went to look for her family after midnight after her husband tested positive.

They took him away by ambulance, although he was asymptomatic, and they were taken in a minibus in which between one and four in the morning they went house to house picking up other close contacts.

“My daughter was very scared when she saw that her father was being taken away and asked why they would not let her sleep.

It was very stressful, ”he recalls.

“In the isolation center we shared a bathroom with 30 people.

How is hygiene guaranteed in this way to prevent the spread of the virus? ”, He wonders,“ I asked who I could talk to to go to the patio, but no one gave me an answer.

In the end I chose to go to a hotel, although I have to take care of the expenses ”.

Local lawyers such as Neme denounce the great influence of Insfrán over the judiciary, which they consider to be an accomplice in the abuses against the population: “They are the ones who must guarantee the exercise of citizens' rights and they are not protecting or making room for any measures ”.

Information about the coronavirus

- Here you can follow the last hour on the evolution of the pandemic

- This is how the coronavirus curve evolves in the world

- Guide to action against the disease

Source: elparis

All life articles on 2021-01-27

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