Argentina went into a full official lockdown Sunday evening as President Alberto Fernández announced the closing of the country’s borders to all arrivals, including the closure of its land borders with its South American neighbours, the suspension of all classes until March 31, permission for all persons who can work from home to do so in both the public and private sectors and a number of other important measures aimed at slowing the spread of coronavirus here.
“Everyone who can, should stay home,” said the president in a press conference.
Among the new measures are a mandatory leave of absence for all persons over 65, special bank and pharmacy hours for persons over 65 to reduce their exposure to large groups of people, the nationwide cancellation of all music shows and other entertainment events, the closure of shopping malls and a series of measures to restrict the flow of people on trains, subways and other forms of public transport.
“We’ve closed Argentina’s border for the next 15 days, except obviously for the entry of Argentine citizens or residents,” the president said. Argentina’s borders will nonetheless remain open for persons wishing to leave the country.
Argentina last week already closed the arrival of flights from the countries most affected by the virus, China, South Korea, Japan, Iran, all of Europe, the UK and the US, but that ban has now been extended to include even its closest neighbours, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia and Uruguay.
“We found that a number of people who had been in the most affected countries were entering across our land borders,” Fernández said, referring to persons who flew to a neighbouring country from Europe, the US or other affected countries and then entered Argentina by land.
The number of coronavirus cases in Argentina ascended to 56 confirmed cases Sunday, up from 46 Saturday, almost all involving persons arriving from Europe and the US, with the number of deaths remaining at two so far.
