MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Vizzotti says Argentina entering fourth wave of COVID-19

The minister ruled out any future lockdowns

Argentina's Health Minister Carla Vizzotti Monday confirmed the country was going through its fourth wave of COVID-19. The official also pointed out that “we are in a different situation” now.

“Today we are starting in Argentina a fourth wave of COVID-19 that finds us in a totally different situation,” Vizzotti said during a Federal Health Council (Cofesa) convention in the most exclusive mountain resort of Villa La Angostura, where health ministers of each province plus those of the City of Buenos Aires and of the federal government gathered to assess the country's sanitary status.

Vizzotti pointed out that the number of cases had quadrupled in one month and went up 92% in one week. “Vaccination gives us the possibility to move forward in this new stage,” the minister also underlined.

“We have been working in a situation of integration due to the pandemic and we have the conviction that we have to take advantage of this opportunity to sustain and deepen it so that it does not depend on the decisions of those who are circumstantially in these places today, but that there is a regulatory framework that allows us to start the path of integration of the health system,” she added.

Vizzotti also highlighted the broad agenda under consideration, saying COVID-19 had not prevented health from addressing other matters.

In statements to the press Sunday, the minister had already ruled out any future lockdowns due to new epidemiological developments, although Monday she conceded that “in the last 14 days cases increased 182%.”

She insisted the situation was not serious “thanks to every measure taken and to the efforts of society, health teams, and governments, at national, provincial and municipal levels.”

Health authorities also explained the new increase in infections was driven by the circulation of the Omicron BA.2 subvariant of the coronavirus and by other sublineages - such as Omicron BA.4 and Omicron BA.2.12.1 - that have been recently identified in the country.

One out of every four people tested in Argentina is diagnosed with COVID-19, health authorities also reported.

In the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA) -which excludes the province of Buenos Aires- cases went up 205% in the last two weeks, while in the Province of Buenos Aires it was 212%.

In the province of La Pampa it was 485%, in San Juan it was 517%, in Catamarca 200%, and in Corrientes 276%.