Most people wouldn't know what common sense was if it walked up and shook their hand. You can count some of the people in our host province among them.
For months, Argentines have enjoyed low daily numbers of Covid 19 cases. I'm talking days where the numbers barely reached two thousand and the death rate had dropped significantly. This led some locals, including some of our friends, to believe that this Covid insanity was almost over and that life was about to return to normal. They were wrong.
As of this post, people at high risk, mainly people 60 and older are the only ones getting the vaccine. There are, of course, a few exceptions such as police officers, hospital staff and some government officials, like the Argentine President Alberto Fernandez, not that this did him much good.
Despite having received both doses of the Sputnik V vaccine in late January and early February, President Fernandez revealed he had contracted Covid 19 in April 2021. This led Argentine health officials to clarify that the vaccine doesn't prevent people from getting the virus. It just reduces the risk of patients going critical and dying.
But even before news broke out about the president's health, Argentines were already violating the social distancing protocols and partying without masks. Even bars, like Johnny B. Good were forced to close for violating health protocols and allowing an excess number of people inside their restaurant. And yet, people have continued to throw caution to the wind. But what's even scarier is that some locals aren't even bothering to wear masks at all, like these lovely examples below.
The hubs and I only go out when it's absolutely necessary like when we need to buy groceries or medicine from the pharmacy. We try to avoid human contact as much as possible because we are well aware that this pandemic is unpredictable and we have to ensure that we minimize the risk of infection. As a result, we don't socialize with our friends. We don't go to the movie theaters (which recently reopened) and we rarely sit down at a restaurant together or with another person unless it's a special occasion like a birthday or a holiday. We do, however, venture out to pick a food order but we come right back.
Our friends have called us paranoid and have teased us for being overly cautious. One person has gone as far as to post photos (and boast) about how often they go out and hang out with their other friends. But if the photos above are any indication, we are being smart.
I was hoping people would have been more understanding, but they haven't been. In fact, recently, an Argie friend of mine and I got into an online argument over my extreme anger over people who don't follow protocols. She told me that she knows people who have been extra careful and still gotten sick. But common sense tells me that even the most careful person runs a higher risk of catching Covid 19 if the people they come into contact with are not being safe.
Suffice it to say, we reached an impasse and had to agree to disagree.
Meanwhile, other mutations of the virus like the UK variant have crept their way into Argentina because of local and international tourism. This has forced the Argentine government to place travel restrictions to reduce the number of these cases. But it seems as though the easing of restrictions that began a few months ago have had dire consequences.
On March 26, 2021, the amount of daily infected rose to 12,936. By March 29, 2021, the numbers rose to 14,014. By March 31, 2021, the numbers rose to 16,056, and in Cordoba province, the number of cases were at 1,260. And within a week, the number of positive cases of Covid 19 had risen by 21 percent in Cordoba alone. By April 6, 2021, the numbers jumped to 20,870.
At this point, Cordoba businesses, particularly restaurants, feared that another quarantine was emminent, but claimed they wouldn't have enough finances to bounce back should this happen.
On April 8, 2021, the numbers jumped to 23,683 nationwide and in Cordoba the numbers were at 2,156.
I think the hubs and I would feel a lot better if we were vaccinated. Unfortunately, we ran into some issues registering for the vaccine. But I'll get to that in my next post.
No comments:
Post a Comment