MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina to announce quarantine extension to 17 July in metropolitan Buenos Aires

President Fernandez, governor Kicillof (R) and Buenos Aires city elected mayor Rodríguez Larreta (L) will announce on Friday the extension of the “preventive and compulsory isolation”

Argentine president Alberto Fernández together with Buenos Aires province governor Axel Kicillof and the head of the Buenos Aires City government, Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, agreed on Thursday to further implement mobility restrictions, including “a strong decline in vehicle circulation” in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires (AMBA).

The restrictions followed a meeting of the three leaders in the presidential residence, which started around 6:00 p.m. and which was expected to make an official announcement on Thursday but was delayed 24 hours. The decision follows an increase in the number of Covid 19 positive cases, above 2,000 per day, after a couple of weeks in which the tendency had been to a declination of cases.

The preventive and compulsory isolation (ASPO) to be announced this Friday and apparently extending until 17 July is based on the “the evolution of the epidemiological situation in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires, both in the multiplication of cases and in the contagiousness of the virus”.

The latest report on infections, released at 7:30 p.m., indicated that 2,606 new cases of Covid-19 contagions were confirmed, bringing the total number of positives to 52,457 in Argentina, while the number of deaths with another 26, brought the total to 1,150.

Next June 28 expires the last extension of the current quarantine, which began on March 20 after the worldwide pandemic was declared, and which will reach 100 days on Saturday in Argentina.

“We need to reinforce the responsibility that citizens have shown so far to continue taking care of each other,” agreed the three leaders. AMBA concentrates most of the Argentine population, GDP, and 90% of all Covid 19 positive cases. This means that most of the remaining Argentine provinces will continue with their current gradual lifting of regional lockdowns.