Coronavirus Rages in Argentina, Cases Top 700,000

Argentina's coronavirus infections reached 700,000 on Saturday, with new regular infections and deaths in the top five worldwide, according to data from Reuters, amid seven months of quarantine ravaging the fragile economy.

Argentina registered a rolling seven-day average of 11,082 new cases every day, just India, the United States, France and Brazil, all countries with much greater populations than the South American nation. Argentina's average daily death toll this week hit  365.

Health officials reported 702,484 total infections since March and 15,543 deaths on Saturday. On Friday, the Province of Buenos Aires reported that it had underestimated the death toll of COVID-19 by 3,523, exaggerating many Argentines who were already tired of months of lockdown that had failed to crack the pandemic.

The additional deaths from the province of Buenos Aires were not included in these statistics, the Ministry of Health said.

Argentina, which was already in the grips of a crippling economic crisis, was among the first countries in Latin America to introduce a strict quarantine. But the steady slowdown over time and the spread of cases from the capital to the provinces has seen cases skyrocketing.

Carlos Landa, a 45-year-old archaeologist from Buenos Aires who had contracted coronavirus, said he and his wife, who had also been infected, had seen their lives turned upside down. Different healthcare coverage indicated that one was automatically checked, and the other was not.

The virus has once again revealed the dangers of ailing economies and healthcare systems, he said.

“Everything is uncertain,” he said.