MONTEVIDEO, March 14, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Argentina announced its second
coronavirus-related death on Friday as Ecuador reported its first, taking the
total death toll in Latin America to five as the virus shows signs of
spreading rapidly.
Venezuela, Uruguay, Guatemala and Suriname reported their first cases of
the COVID-19 pandemic.
Overall cases in the region have more than doubled in the last two days to
over 340 as the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warned governments on
Thursday to prepare their health services to cope.
Several Latin American countries have tightened restrictions on travel
links with Europe, from where many people in the region are descended and
still have family.
A 61-year-old Argentine man who returned from Italy on February 24 and had
previously suffered from pneumonia died of “respiratory failure,” the Chaco
provincial health ministry said in a statement.
Italy is the worst affected country outside of China, where the virus
originated.
Argentina reported the first Latin American coronavirus death on March 7.
In Ecuador, a 71-year-old woman who had traveled to Spain died of a “severe
respiratory failure,” Health Minister Catalina Andramuno said.
The woman was also the first person in Ecuador to have been diagnosed with
the COVID-19 disease.
– Bolsonaro tests negative –
Following earlier press reports that he had contracted the virus, Brazil’s
far-right populist leader Jair Bolsonaro posted a message to his Facebook
page saying he had tested negative.
“Don’t believe in the fake news media!” he wrote alongside a picture of him
performing an obscene gesture.
Bolsonaro was tested after his communications chief, Fabio Wajngarten,
contracted the virus following a trip to the United States in which both men
had met US President Donald Trump.
Venezuela announced its first two coronavirus cases: a 41-year-old who had
visited the US, Italy and Spain, and a 52-year-old who visited Spain.
Both had returned from Madrid on an Iberian airways flight to Caracas that
flies three times a week.
Authorities ordered everyone on that route between March 2-5 into
“immediate obligatory preventative quarantine.”
The government suspended all school and university classes and ordered
those working at border entry points to wear face masks.
Chile and Mexico joined many other countries in banning large gatherings,
while Uruguay said it had registered four cases, three in people who had
returned from Milan.
Cuban medical specialists said they have developed an antiviral drug used
in China to treat patients that replenishes the human immune system and had
received interest from 15 countries in buying it.
But in Bolivia, panic had already started to spread despite just three
recorded cases.
People outside hospitals blocked others from seeking treatment, saying the
facilities were not equipped to handle coronavirus and that accepting them
would spread the illness, local media reported.
– Music festivals off –
Brazil postponed until December the international Lollapalooza festival due
to run from April 3-5 in Sao Paulo.
Santiago and Buenos Aires had previously postponed their festival dates
until November.
Rio state closed schools, theatres, sports stadiums and concert halls for
two weeks, while Sao Paulo state likewise called off public events.
Uruguay canceled a rock festival in the capital Montevideo that was
expected to attract 40,000 fans.
Brazilian also authorities quarantined a Bahamas-flagged cruise ship with
600 people aboard after a 78-year-old Canadian passenger developed a fever,
cough and breathing trouble.
Uruguay turned away a cruise ship from its popular tourist resort Punta de
Este even though no-one on board was reported as ill.
President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, which has reported no cases, ordered
the army to detain anyone entering the country illegally to try to contain
the virus.
Stock markets partially rebounded on Friday after a bruising week.
Brazil’s Sao Paulo exchange climbed almost 14 percent but lost 15 percent
overall this week.
Paraguay and Colombia suspended their football leagues while Bolivia and
Uruguay barred fans from theirs. Brazil banned fans from matches in its two
largest cities, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.