The Minister of Health, Carla vizzotti, affirmed this Sunday that Argentina has an “exponential and explosive increase in cases” of coronavirus, but pointed out that Omicron It is a variant “different from the previous ones given that it has a shorter incubation period”, so it is expected that “infections will begin to decline faster”.
“There’s a paradigm shift because we are facing another epidemic, another virus, a variant that is quite different from the previous ones. It is a challenge to communicate these huge and dynamic changes, “he added.
The official indicated that the Ministry of Health is “reviewing the evidence” and that it was resolved “decrease isolation because it is safe; those who are vaccinated are less likely to get sick and transmit the virus for less time. “
“Like this variant has a shorter incubation period, the possibility of reducing the isolation of vaccinated people is very safe, “said Vizzotti in dialogue with C5N and Radio 10.
We can hope that cases will start to go down faster. “Carla vizzotti
In this regard, he pointed out that, faced with this scenario, the Government decided to “expand the testing offer ensuring traceability, with the self test“, in addition to warning that” it is very possible that the changes that we have to make are much more frequent than in previous waves. “
“To think that until a month ago we were encouraging testing and now we are saying that it is not necessary for everyone to be tested, but all these points have an explanation,” he completed.
The minister assured that Argentina, as in the world, has a “exponential and explosive increase in cases“but that the Omicron variant has a” shorter incubation period “and” for that reason we can expect that the cases will start to decline faster. “
And he added: “Also vaccinated people transmit the virus for less time. Those two factors –thanks to the vaccination in Argentina- they generate the expectation that in this wave as well as it increased exponentially, the decline will be more rapidly than in previous times “.
The official explained that the government is evaluating the development of the new variant, which is “much more transmissible and less lethal thanks to vaccination,” and pointed out the case of Córdoba, which was the first province that had the highest number of cases of Ómicron. but “where now stopped increasing exponentially“.
For Vizzotti, “nothing definitive can be said but it is a good sign.”
In turn, she was consulted by the meeting she held on Friday together with her Economy counterpart, Martín Guzmán, and representatives of the business sector, to which she replied that it is necessary to “demystify” the meeting because she did not receive “any request from businessmen “.
“The problem of isolations is not of the private sector and it is not something that the private sector has requested and that the Government is thinking about” for them, explained Vizzotti.
Regarding the start of classes, Vizzotti said that they have the “expectation that by February the situation is very clear and the outlook regarding whether this hypothesis of a firm downward trend” is evident.
“With the timely start of vaccination of boys and girls between the ages of 3 and 11, they are really going to be very important pillars to advance in a careful presence,” he commented.
