6:45 p.m. ET, April 6, 2021
Argentina records highest number of daily coronavirus cases since the pandemic started
From CNN’s Tatiana Arias
A health worker administers a Covid-19 test at the Costa Salguero convention center, in Buenos Aires, on April 5.
Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images
Argentina on Tuesday reported its highest daily count of new Covid-19 cases since the pandemic started, according to data from the health ministry.
The country reported at least 20,870 new cases of Covid-19 in a single day, raising the total number of confirmed cases to at least 2,428,029, official data showed.
Additionally, the country reported at least 163 new Covid-19-related fatalities, bringing the country’s death toll to 56,634.
Over the past week, Argentina saw a rise in Covid-19 cases following a long holiday weekend where internal tourism without Covid-19 restrictions was permitted. During the holy week holiday, people were allowed to travel freely without requiring a negative
PCR test or mandatory quarantine time.
There is a “sustained and accelerated increase in [Covid-19] cases, where the second wave is already a fact,” Argentina’s health minister Carla Vizzotti said during a news conference Tuesday.
“Over the past three weeks, from one week to the next, the cases increased first by 5%, then by 11% and in the last week the increase in cases was greater than 30%. Even in some regions such as the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires, the increase in cases was greater than 40% in a single week,” Argentina’s national director of epidemiology and strategic information, Analia Rearte, said during Tuesday’s news conference, according to a statement from the health ministry.
Additionally, health authorities informed that the number of regions reporting a “high epidemiological risk” went from 48 a week ago to 85 this week, and that the number of people at risk went from 12 million to 25 million.