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Argentina lifts most Covid restrictions

Argentina lifted most of its Covid-19 restrictions today, on the back of a sustained drop in cases caused by rising vaccination rates and the end of winter. That said, the government’s rousing defeat in midterm primaries last week might also have played a part in the decision.

New cabinet head Juan Manzur and Health Minister Carla Vizzotti announced that facemasks will no longer be mandatory on Argentina’s streets, while also removing restrictions on social meetings, increasing the maximum capacity of all economic, commercial, religious, cultural, and sporting activities to 100 percent, and even allowing the reopening of night clubs, which may operate at 50 percent capacity. 

Argentina had some of the region’s strongest Covid restrictions throughout 2020, but loosened rules in 2021 as authorities feared they could no longer financially sustain a rigid lockdown. Daily deaths have dropped from a peak of nearly 600 per day in June to less than 100 per day today, while cases plummeted from 30,000 per day to around 2,000.

Ignacio Portes

Ignacio Portes is The Brazilian Report's Latin America editor. Based in Buenos Aires, he has covered politics, macro, markets and diplomacy for the Financial Times, Al Jazeera, and the Buenos Aires Herald.

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