Catamarca records its first case of coronavirus

Argentina’s last holdout from the novel coronavirus is no more: Officials confirmed Friday that the first case of Covid-19 had been registered in Catamarca Province.

The region’s governor, Raúl Jalil, said that the individual had travelled from Buenos Aires City to the northwestern province and had been isolated before entering the provincial capital of San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca, to use its full name.

"After 105 days without contagions, we have detected the first positive case of Covid-19 in Catamarca. It is a carrier that was isolated before entering the Capital and is under medical control and epidemiological monitoring. We have to take care of each other responsibly," said Jalil in a post on Twitter.

The Peronist governor was at pains to point out the case was “imported” into the region and said the individual was truck-driver. 

"These 105 days without cases have allowed us to prepare, with national, provincial and municipal resources, the entire health and safety system to face this scenario," he declared.

Officials in the provincial government confirmed to local news outlets that the individual was a resident of the province who works for a company in Buenos Aires City. During his trip home, he began to feel ill and after registering a fever and sore throat, he notified the authorities.

"Today we had the results from a traveller who came from the City of Buenos Aires. He entered a hospital and had already manifested symptoms, so he went into isolation and we had a positive result in the early hours of this afternoon," confirmed Catamarca’s Security Minister Hernán Martel.

Elsewhere in the province, two towns were placed under stricter quarantine conditions on Friday after authorities confirmed a suspected case of coronavirus. Belén and Andalgalá have been returned to a ‘Phase 1’ lockdown for the next 14 days.

Up until Friday, Catamarca was the only province, so far, that had not registered confirmed cases of Covid-19. Around 90 percent of all Argentina’s 72,786 cases have been recorded in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area (AMBA).

– TIMES/NA