Julio Mazzoleni, former Minister of Health.
On a date like today, but in 2020, Paraguay reported the first case of coronavirus. Days later, the dreaded and eternal health quarantine was declared. The former Minister of Health, Julio Mazzoleni, maintains that the measures were effective.
On March 7, 2020, Public Health surprised with an emergency press conference on a Saturday afternoon, where he reported the detection of the first patient with Covid in Paraguay and urged to “remain calm.”
On the occasion it was reported that the person affected was a 32-year-old man who arrived from Ecuador with fever and throat discomfort. It was also clarified that his case was not serious, however, all the people who had minimal contact with him, from his landing to his last stop at the medical consultation, They were sent to isolation.
Three days later, on March 10, also in the afternoon, the President of the Republic, Mario Abdo Benítez decreed a total quarantine for 15 days and completely paralyzed educational, economic and social activities.
This abrupt disposition cforever changed the lives of many and to this day is criticized by some and praised by others, such as the former Minister of Health, Julio Mazzoleni, who, on the third anniversary of the pandemic, reflected on it and considered that the decision was correct.
“For our reality, it was a successful measure,” Mazzoleni opined today, in an interview with Radio Monumental.
He remembered whatf the initial calculations, when seeing what was happening in Italy, was that the first wave was going to leave more deaths than those currently available, that is, 19,878 deaths.
In its article 1, the decree provided fully restrict the movement of people and vehicles and established that all inhabitants should remain in their habitual residence and that they could only leave for minimum and essential trips such as the purchase of food, medicine and cleaning supplies.
The few exceptions were the national authorities, the workers of communication media, supermarkets, pantries, pharmacies and the logistics chain for the provision of food, drugs, etc.
On the other hand, days before the extension, that is, on March 26, the law declaring an emergency throughout the national territory in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic was already enacted. The legislation empowered the Executive to take exceptional budgetary, fiscal, and administrative measures.
The congress approved a credit of 1,600 million dollars for the emergency, of which approximately 400 million were for the Ministry of Health. Other measures followed, such as assistance to suspended workers through an IPS subsidy, social programs such as Ñangareko and Pytyvö.
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The seven million dollars disbursed by Paraguay in favor of the Covax mechanism, pending the “timely” distribution of the vaccines, vanished and to this day, there is no chance of recovery, not to mention that the vaccines never arrived and that, if it were not for the large-scale North American donation, Paraguay would have had a very low rate of immunizations in the first two years of the pandemic.
