BUENOS AIRES, (Reuters) – Argentina is going through its “worst moment” of the COVID-19 pandemic, health minister said on Wednesday, as deaths from the virus hit 60,000 in the middle of a sharp second wave that has forced the country to re-enforce certain lock-in measures.
Health Minister Carla Vizzotti warned that the health care system of the South American country was at risk, especially in the metropolitan area around the capital Buenos Aires, which had forced the government to restrict the movement and stop indoor activities.
“We are living through the worst moment of the pandemic now,” he told a daily briefing, adding that the country is seeing an important increase in the circulation of new variants, with the virus surging in the capital and beyond.
“It’s growing exponentially in most of the country.”
Argentina, which is rolling out a vaccination program mainly around Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, has recorded around 2.77 million COVID-19 cases and has set a series of new daily records for infections in recent weeks. The death toll rose 291 on Wednesday to 60,083.
A local lab said Tuesday that it had produced a test batch of Sputnik V before large-scale production later this year. Vizzotti said it was “great news” although he warned it needed quality control and that the time frame would depend on how that process went.
Carlos Camera, an Argentine infectious disease expert, said there was a possibility that health systems could be overwhelmed, which was due to new restrictions that had triggered some protests amid a fragile economic rebound.
“What was not anticipated was the size of this second wave having reached and above all its speed compared to the speed we have managed with vaccinations,” said Camera.
Carolina Caceres, a nurse at Tornu hospital in Buenos Aires, protested Wednesday with others calling for better wages for health workers.
“In this second wave of infections, nurses are dealing with all the pressure to maintain the public health system in this pandemic, without pay and without remuneration,” he told Reuters. “We can’t take it anymore.”