Guillermo Villarreal
02/10/2021 7:54 PM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 02/10/2021 19:54
It is not the first time that the port of Mar del Plata has become a source of Covid-19 infections.
This time the
outbreak
arose in the crew of a
ship that moored on Sunday with 650 tons of squid
, but unlike in previous cases, now
the captain of the ship did not notify the
port
authorities
that a crew member had symptoms on board.
For this reason, the authorities did not deploy the planned protocol, with an ambulance ready at the dock to evaluate and eventually evacuate the possible case, and consequently,
the stevedores -shore personnel that unloads- began their work
, with a disastrous result :
at least 19 infections and a hotel full of isolated workers
.
It happened on Sunday afternoon, when the jigger (a vessel designed for squid fishing)
Natalia
, from the Moscuzza Group, pioneer of the Argentine fishing sector, moored at the local terminal.
It had sailed in mid-January and it did so, as established in the protocol, after all its crew were swabbed and with negative results.
Neither the Argentine Naval Prefecture nor the Port Consortium were informed by the shipowner company, which planned to
unload and set sail
for a second tide, nor by the captain of the ship that among the sailors there was one with symptoms compatible with Covid-19.
With no news report, the procedure was the usual one.
On Monday, forty stevedores associated with the Hipocoop cooperative and four other casual workers began unloading the jumper early.
"At a quarter to five in the afternoon, they told me that they had an infected sailor," explained the president of Hipocoop, Alberto Ovejero, to
Revista Puerto
, a publication specialized in port issues.
"After a while there were already seven; a while later, fourteen," he
said.
The
forty stevedores of the cooperative were isolated in a hotel
in the center of Mar del Plata, which was taken over by the Moscuzza firm.
They will all be swabbed this Thursday.
The four stevedores who had joined the unloading work had practically no contact with the crew, but were also isolated.
The results would have been the same if the version revealed by port sources is confirmed.
They indicate that in the "Natalia" it was known that
at least half a dozen workers "raised a fever or lost their taste and smell
.
"
As the company intended to return to sea with the ship, while on Monday it progressed with the unloading, in groups, the sailors were being tested.
Finally, there were 19 infected. The number may grow if they appear positive among dockers.
During the pandemic, the port of Mar del Plata suffered the consequences of the coronavirus.
In September, the ship
María Liliana
arrived
from Puerto Madryn with 31 of its 40 infected crew members
.
In October, the SOMU (United Maritime Workers Union) paralyzed the port with a
strike due to the increase in cases
and the definition of a protocol.
In December, sailors from the
San Andrés Apóstol
,
Faro
,
Tozudo
and
Huafen
g
fishing
vessels
had tested positive
.
The focus of contagions in the local port terminal occurs in the midst of
a decrease in cases registered by the city
, which this week had the lowest daily number
since mid-December
even as the summer season unfolds.
There were 156 new people in treatment;
the peak in Mar del Plata occurred in October, with 477 positives in one day.
DS
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