The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Waiting for more vaccines: strict and short quarantines, the government's plan to spend the winter

2021-05-23T01:46:29.273Z


Minister Carla Vizzotti blanked out the strategy launched by Alberto Fernández with the new confinement that will last until May 30 and the following weekend.


Guido Carelli Lynch

05/22/2021 21:01

  • Clarín.com

  • Politics

Updated 05/22/2021 9:01 PM

The strong restrictions on circulation to counteract the rise in coronavirus infections, which

Alberto Fernández

ordered in the last DNU, are for nine consecutive days plus the weekend of June 5 and 6, but the Government is already thinking of replicating the measured intermittently

to get through the winter,

while accelerating the pace of the vaccination operation. 

“The measure is temporary and the situation will be reassessed after these nine days.

We need to monitor and, if necessary, generate intermittent measures, "said

Carla Vizzotti

this Saturday in dialogue with CNN Radio.

The Minister of Health planted a flag and expressed a position that was already common knowledge in the Government in recent hours and that no one hid in the Casa Rosada.

The closing until May 30 - added to those of the following weekend - will not be the last.

The President had ruled out on Tuesday that a quarantine such as that of 2020, the aforementioned return to

Phase 1.

However, in just 48 hours and with the records of infections and deaths on the order of the day, he was convinced of the need to take measures drastic.

The turning point for that turn was the conversation that the head of state had with the

committee of infectologists

on Wednesday before listening to the governors and anticipating the need for tougher measures.

“The experts asked us, at least, to

close 21 days.

But we also know in which country we live, the social and economic urgencies that we have, that is why it seemed to us that this was a good way to calibrate the different needs ”, some of the main collaborators of the Head of State pointed out late on Friday.

"People do not resist a phase 1", had been the words of the President himself on Tuesday.


The economic and social situation, then, forces the Executive to less prolonged closures that do not completely block

the increasingly relative rebound of the economy

with respect to 2020. The elections and the fate of the Government are just around the corner.

Control of circulation in the new strict confinement in the Federal Capital.

Photo EFE

In in the environment of the President they minimize any speculation and predetermined plan.

"(Alberto) will close when necessary without looking at surveys or newspapers. He will only listen to the experts," said one of his closest collaborators.

At the worst moment of the pandemic, the committee of experts regains the prominence it did last year, when the image of the President reached its peak. 

During the last week, Omar Sued, one of the most prestigious doctors who advises the President, had suggested intermittent shutdowns like the one now executed by the president and suggested Vizzotti for the future.

His proposal had nothing to do with a solution that would not drastically affect the economy, but fundamentally with a measure that would be

effectively enforced

by the citizens.

Sued and other experts who advise the president believe that the restrictions that are too extended in time tend to relax and that the abbreviated ones are easier to comply with and control.

"The more the measures are complied with, the less need there will be to prolong them," they

argue in the Ministry of Health.

For this reason, the Government is betting on the success of the

controls

, which fall first of all in the 24 provinces.

However, the federal forces once again occupied a fundamental role, especially in the AMBA, where

11,500

security forces

were assembled

, with 65 fixed, dynamic and random controls in 31 municipalities of Greater Buenos Aires.

“The effective measures are those that are fulfilled and controlled.

The control of the measures and the protocols are outside the competence of the Government.

That is why we need a full commitment from all local governments ”, insisted officials with an office in Casa Rosada.

In the cabinet of the Buenos Aires head of government,

Horacio Rodríguez Larreta

, who this time folded seamlessly to the President's DNU, they have doubts about whether any intermittent cuts will be necessary.

"If

more vaccines

arrive

, as Vizzotti says, in 4 weeks the evolution (of the infection and hospitalization curve) will change," they say at the small table of the mayor of Buenos Aires. 

Strictly speaking, the minister and the President -during the national chain- announced that

4 million vaccines

would arrive in the next few days

and that they were negotiating again with the Chinese government for the acquisition of more doses of Sinopharm.

Fernández and Rodríguez Larreta, separately, were forceful in stating that in the coming weeks the population at risk would be vaccinated.

The epidemiological criteria in the current DNU - identical to those of the bill that the President sent to Congress and has already been approved with changes in the Senate - are less auspicious than the forecasts of the Capital.

Both regulations declare an epidemiological alert, among other cases, to urban locations with

more than 80 percent of the therapy units occupied.

The bill, which Juntos por el Cambio rejects and went into limbo precisely because of the current restrictions themselves, suggests measures for those locations of up to 21 days.

“It is not one thing or another: while the vaccination process progresses, it is necessary to generate the measures to

reduce the circulation of people and minimize the transmission of the virus until they are distributed, applied and wait 14-21 days to generate antibodies and defenses, "said Vizzotti during his media raid prior to the weekend.

Meanwhile, the Government launched new spots to inform and raise awareness among citizens.

"The coronavirus takes Argentines every day,"

warns one of the new pieces without euphemisms. 

Long or shorter closings will generate more noise in a troubled society.

In the Government they know it and one of their priorities of the Executive is to keep social conflict at bay in the face of the elections.

To that end, last week an

inter-ministerial table

was inaugurated at the Casa Rosada

to anticipate these scenarios. This instance is headed by the Chief of Staff,

Santiago Cafiero

, and first and second line officials from the ministries of Security, Labor, Interior and Social Development.

Source: clarin

All news articles on 2021-05-23

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.