Coronavirus: Argentina Faces a Third Wave

Back in March, I took a look into how COVID-19 was impacting Brazil. At the time, I was seeing spikes starting to appear to Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. At the time, I didn't notice an upwards trend in Argentina. If I had waited a couple weeks or so, I would have started to notice an upward trend. Argentina is definitely seeing a third wave.

Argentina is a country that took immediate action at the beginning of the pandemic. Reuters (Apr 10, 2020) reported back then the following:

Argentina will extend until April 27 the lockdown it imposed last month to control the spread of the coronavirus, President Alberto Fernandez said in a televised address on Friday, adding that the measure would be applied only in major cities . . . The lockdown, which started on March 20, has slowed the spread of the virus and remains the best way of controlling the pandemic, he added.

At that time, Argentina only had 1,975 confirmed cases, but the vast majority of countries can only contain the virus for so long. Per Worldometer, Argentina is now closing into 3.5 million cases. This third wave is perhaps heightened by the fact that the country has provided at least one dose to less than 20% of their population. They currently have the 11th most cases (per Worldometer), but they likely will push up this unfortunate ranking over the next couple months as their vaccination program is going slowly.

What is some of the news coming out of the country?

In early April, President Fernandez tested positive for COVID-19 even though he had been vaccinated. He had been given the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.

New York Post (May 2) reported on a situation that sounds all to familiar in areas that have uncontrollable outbreaks:

Argentina coronavirus cases hit 3 million on Sunday since the pandemic began, as medical workers said hospitals were full to capacity despite toughened government measures to bring down the spread of infections.

All of this is happening while Argentina is dealing with another debt crisis. New York Times (Apr 19) reported:

Its economy shrank nearly 10 percent in 2020, the third straight year of recession.

The pandemic has accelerated an exodus of foreign investment, which has pushed down the value of the Argentine peso. That has increased the costs of imports like food and fertilizer, and kept the inflation rate above 40 percent. More than four in 10 Argentines are mired in poverty.

. . . “The I.M.F. leadership has made clear that this is the framework,” said Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate economist at Columbia University in New York. The new arrangement will reflect “the new I.M.F.,” he added, “recognizing that austerity doesn’t work, and recognizing their concerns about poverty.”

Argentina is a country that has dealt with debt crisis after debt crisis. Perhaps this new approach will work.