Even though it has Brazil as a neighbor, which is currently the country with the second highest number of coronavirus cases after the United States, Paraguay has managed to contain the infections and has the lowest mortality rate per Covid-19 in Latin America, 2 deaths per million inhabitants. The country is making progress in reopening activities; they are in the third of the four phases of reactivation.
According to official data, as of June 23 there are 1,422 confirmed cases and 13 deaths in the country, just two in the last month. 483 people have the virus active at this time; there are eight people hospitalized and one person is in an intensive care unit. 926 people have recovered.
These are figures from the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare of Paraguay.
Forty percent of those infected are between the ages of 20 and 29. Only 1% of them are between 70 and 79 years old and 3% are between 60 and 69.
A report by Angelo Attanasio for BBC Mundo explains that the first isolation measures in February, when there were no infected people yet, which led to an early strict lockdown, as well as the closure of land borders and the geographical situation of Paraguay have favored the low incidence of the virus in the country.
Attanasio reports that in early February, the government led by Mario Abdo Benítez since 2018 suspended granting visas for all Chinese citizens and foreigners who had travelled to that country.
The first case of coronavirus in Paraguay was confirmed on March 7. Three days later, the second one was registered. The two people had arrived in the country from Ecuador and Argentina. On March 10, President Abdo Benitez decreed a general preventive isolation throughout the territory, Attanasio recounts. Classes at all levels of schooling were suspended, and massive events and meetings and activities in closed places were restricted. Soon after, the government also decreed an night curfew.
“Our argument was that these cases came from countries where there were no community transmission at the time. The question we asked ourselves was: ‘Can we rule out that within our country we don’t have community transmission of the virus?’ and the answer was no,” Juan Carlos Portillo, director general of health services at Paraguay’s Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare, explained, as quoted by the BBC Mundo article.
In addition, the country was experiencing “the worst dengue epidemic ever recorded in Paraguay,” according to Portillo, and therefore the country’s already “weak” health system and its staff had been “under pressure” for weeks.
On March 20, preventive isolation was converted into a strict quarantine by government decree. Only essential workers, caregivers, or those who had to buy food and medicine or attend to emergencies were allowed to leave their homes.
A study by the Americas Society Council of the Americas highlights that already on March 9 the Hospital Clínico in Paraguay prepared a special block to treat patients with Covid-19, and that on April 21 the government announced that it had finished building two contingency hospitals for these patients.
Paraguay is a landlocked country, which also has large uninhabited territories and a low population density. In the 406,752 square kilometers of its surface only 7 million 53 thousand inhabitants live. This is equivalent to a population density of 17 people per square kilometer.
Air traffic in Paraguay is much lower than in the rest of the region. Even so, the Abdó government has completely closed the borders with Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina. “To date, it is not contemplating reopening them,” writes journalist Angelo Attanasio in his June 19 report. The closing decree of March 24 was extended indefinitely a month later. Border surveillance was stepped up.
Paraguay shares with Brazil 1300 kilometers of border. “Paraguayan military personnel were sent to the border region to prevent the entry of cars and buses from Brazilian merchants and residents,” BBC Mundo’s Attanasio reports.
On the other hand, Abdó’s government allowed the Paraguayans and foreign residents to return to the country, but housed them in “dozens of hostels” throughout the territory for a two-week quarantine there. At the time of the publication of the article, Attanasio reported there were 6,000 people housed there. Figures from the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare indicate that 58 per cent of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Paraguay are registered in these shelters. According to the BBC World reporter, the Paraguayan state provides food and health care for these people but there have also been “complaints about the treatment and conditions in many of these places”.
For the progressive reactivation of the economy and activities, the government of Paraguay declared the so-called “intelligent quarantine” which has four phases. The country is in the third phase since June 15. It was to last until July 5, but it will be extended for two more weeks, until the 19th. In this phase, non-essential businesses can open with restricted hours; other activities that require the presence of customers for more than half an hour can operate with a prior appointment; restaurants also operate with prior appointment and table reservations also with limited hours; teachers can go to schools to give virtual classes and private individual classes can be given in academies; professional services can be provided in the customer’s homes; offices work with up to 50% of their employees in person; among others.