Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou has announced new restrictive measures that will be implemented by April 12 to reduce the spread of Covid-19.
Public offices will be closed, except for essential services, and personal learning for all levels of education will also be suspended. Clubs, gyms, amateur sports, public performances, parties and social events will also be suspended, and restaurants and bars will close at midnight. The “free shops” on the border with Brazil, the duty-free shops where Brazilians shop to resell in their cities, will also be closed.
“If free shops are a hub (for risks), well we close them,” the Uruguayan president told a news conference Tuesday night.
Uruguay’s neighbor, Brazil, is one of the world’s most affected countries by a pandemic, with overwhelmed intensive care units, growing cases and some essential medical supplies. It has the second highest number of virus cases and deaths, surpassed only by the United States.
The president also said that the number of ICU beds in the country will be increased by 35 additional beds for the private sector, 10 for the military hospital and 84 for the public sector.
“Stay in the bubbles, stay with your close family,” Lacalle said.
Uruguay set a record for new cases and deaths on Monday, with 2,700 new cases and 19 new deaths. Also on Monday, health authorities said that 24 cases of the Brazilian version P.1 were detected in the country. The country also set a record on the same day for the number of active cases – 14,418 and a record for the number of people in intensive care – 188.
On Tuesday, the country registered 1,801 new cases of the virus for a total of 86,007 cases since the pandemic began, according to the country’s health ministry. Also on Tuesday, an additional 16 virus-related deaths were recorded, bringing the total number of deaths to 827.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) highlighted an increase in cases in Uruguay on Tuesday. The director of PAHO, Dr. Carissa Etienne, said that Uruguay has reported more than 1,000 cases a day several times in recent weeks “which is alarming, given the size of the country.”
The current population of Uruguay is 3,482,469 as of March 24, 2021, based on the Worldometer of the latest United Nations data.