Argentina back to strict quarantine

Authorities in Argentina stepped up control in access points to Buenos Aires ahead of Wednesday, when the urban hub will roll back its COVID-19 lockdown to phase one.

Thousands of businesses that have been enduring a drastic drop in sales will close their doors again.

The rollback applies mostly to Buenos Aires and it's metropolitan area where more than a third of the country's population lives and that accumulates more than 90 per cent of the new coronavirus cases.

In the rest of the country, the pandemic is much more limited.

Concerned about the increasing occupation of intensive care beds in the capital and nearby towns, up by 54 per cent last week, Argentine President Alberto Fernández decided to bet on returning to a quarantine stage similar to the one that began on March 20, much more severe than the current.

Restrictions on public transport began on Monday, which could only be used by those who carry out some thirty activities considered essential, such as doctors, supermarket employees, or members of the security forces.

The rest of the workers had to travel in their vehicles or on foot.

From Wednesday until July 17, thousands of businesses of clothing, footwear, electrical appliances, and many others that have been enduring a drastic drop in sales will close their doors again.

The Argentine Federation of Chambers and Commercial Centers warned that after working with difficulty for a few weeks after the relaxation of some restrictions, some 350,000 businesses in Buenos Aires and its surroundings will have to close again, at least temporarily, and 100,000 could do it definitively.

The consulting company's survey from Giacobbe & Asociado, of 2500 people indicates that 56.4 per cent stated that their financial situation could not bear another month of quarantine.

The pandemic strikes an Argentina that suffers from a pre-existing crisis and whose activity will collapse 9.9 per cent in 2020, according to the International Monetary Fund.