Sergio Barrera Ruiz, a 52-year-old pediatrician from Jujuy in Argentina, sees a local health crisis looming as the COVID-19 pandemic ripples out from Buenos Aires, the capital, and grips the nation’s less well-equipped provinces.
Jujuy, a region of about 770,000 people, like other parts of the nation has seen cases spike as nationwide deaths total 10,405. Total cases rose to 500,034 on Tuesday, with almost one in two tests coming back positive.
“Jujuy is in a health catastrophe, there are not enough intensive therapy beds, doctors are getting sick and patients are dying,” said Barrera Ruiz, who himself was infected with COVID-19 at work, where he said there were not enough medical personnel and an endless line of patients.
Argentina initially controlled the spread of the coronavirus with a tough quarantine beginning in the middle of March, but as economic pressures grew, restrictions were eased and infections soared, taking the nation to 10th in the world for number of cases.
Argentine Ministry of Health data showed that over the past month, the number of confirmed infections daily is almost half that of the number of tests carried out, one of the highest “positive” rates in the world along with Mexico and Bolivia.
For months, more than 90 percent of cases were concentrated in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area — home to almost one-third of Argentina’s population — while the provinces were mainly spared.
That has changed abruptly. The provinces now account for almost one-third of cases, with Cordoba, Santa Fe, Jujuy and Mendoza the most affected.
Experts link the increase in cases to the easing of a nationwide lockdown amid rising economic and political pressure on Argentine President Alberto Fernandez.
Argentina’s quarantine has been in place for almost 170 days in various forms.
About a dozen provinces have had to retighten restrictions due to the increase in infections. In some districts, health systems have collapsed, with neither the resources nor the personnel to support them.
“Two weeks ago, we were practically without cases, but when the quarantine was relaxed, the cases increased terribly. We are already at a limit of beds and resources,” said Raul Caraballo, a doctor in Santa Fe.
The rolling seven-day average number of cases in Argentina is about 10,000 per day, with about 200 daily deaths. There were a record 12,027 new confirmed cases on Tuesday.
“People relaxed a lot and contagions increased in Chaco,” said Adriana Perroni, an intensive care specialist in the northeastern province. “Here we are seeing a lot of deaths of younger people, especially in the healthcare field.”
Argentine Society of Intensive Care president Rosa Reina said that the rise in cases had been very abrupt, with provinces going from a few cases to having intensive care beds at more than 80 percent capacity.
“If we do not prevent more hospital admissions, it is very possible that we will very quickly become overwhelmed,” Reina said.
An Australian university student who has never visited China and has only a modest social media following would seem an unlikely target for the Chinese government. However, when a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman personally denounced Drew Pavlou at a news conference, it was just the next phase in an extraordinary campaign against the 21-year-old that has fueled concerns over China’s targeting of critics overseas. Pavlou first placed himself in the superpower’s sights when in July last year he organized a small sit-in at the University of Queensland, where he studies, to protest against various Chinese government policies. Since then, the Global
BEFORE WINTER COMES: Snow cuts off roads into Ladakh for four months or more each year, so the crunch is on to get food, tents and high-altitude equipment to Leh From deploying mules to large transport aircraft, the Indian military has activated its entire logistics network to transport supplies to thousands of troops for a harsh winter along a bitterly disputed Himalayan border with China. In the past few months, one of India’s biggest military logistics exercises in years has brought vast quantities of ammunition, equipment, fuel, winter supplies and food into Ladakh, a region bordering Tibet that India administers as a union territory, officials said. The move was triggered by a border standoff with China in the snow deserts of Ladakh that began in May and escalated in June into hand-to-hand
Since her personal telephone number was posted online, Hong Kong democracy advocate and Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions chairperson Carol Ng has received menacing calls from strangers and been bombarded with messages calling her a “cockroach.” She is not alone. A sophisticated and shady Web site called HK Leaks has ramped up its “doxxing” — where people’s personal details are published online — of Hong Kong democracy advocates, targeting those it says have broken Hong Kong’s National Security Law. Promoted by groups linked to the Chinese Chinese Communist Party and hosted on Russia-based servers, HK Leaks has become the most prominent “doxxing”
A Malaysian student whose cellphone was stolen while he was sleeping has tracked down the culprit: a monkey who took photo and video selfies with the device before abandoning it. Zackrydz Rodzi, 20, on Wednesday said that his mobile phone was missing from his bedroom when he woke up on Saturday. He found the phone’s casing under his bed, but there was no sign of robbery in his house in Johor state. JUNGLE When his father saw a monkey the next day, he searched in the jungle behind his house. Using his brother’s cellphone to call his own device, he found it covered
RSS