BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentina confirmed more than 1,000 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday as the rate of new infections continued to rise just days after extending lockdown measures in the capital Buenos Aires, the countrys largest city and the virus epicenter.
Argentinas Health Ministry logged 1,141 new cases in the past 24 hours, as well 24 deaths, pushing its total to 24,761 cases and 717 deaths since the outbreak began in early March.
South America has become the new front in the global coronavirus outbreak. Though rising, Argentinas rate of infections nonetheless remains markedly lower than neighbors Chile, which reported 3,913 cases on Tuesday, and Brazil, which registered 32,091 new cases.
Argentina extended last week a mandatory lockdown in Buenos Aires, which accounts for the highest concentration of confirmed infections. The rest of the country has moved to “mandatory and preventive social distancing.”
Much of Argentina had been under a shelter-in-place order since March 20. The country has a commercial flight ban until Sept. 1, one of the world’s strictest travel measures during the pandemic.
(Reporting by Adam Jourdan and Walter Bianchi, writing by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
