Argentine Health Minister Gines Gonzalez Garcia on Monday urged the public to keep up preventive measures against COVID-19 to avoid straining the healthcare system.
While new therapies were coming to light, such as hyperimmune equine serum found to be safe and effective in treating moderate to severe cases, as well as vaccines, prevention was the best, said Gonzalez.
“Today we have equine serum, vaccines and many advances, but nothing beats individual behavior, and if we do not retake the idea of taking care of ourselves, this is going to get very complicated,” he warned in a radio interview, according to state news agency Telam.
President Alberto Fernandez aims to “have many people immunized as soon as possible to stop the spread (of infections) a little,” he added.
Argentina registered its first COVID-19 case on March 3, 2020 and reported a total of 1,730,921 cases with 44,654 deaths as of Monday. Intensive care unit beds are 54.6 percent occupied across the country.
Given a recent rapid rise in cases, the government on Friday authorized governors of the country’s 24 provinces to implement lockdown measures to stop the spread of the virus.
