In the end the gloves were put on by Enzo Perez, who is a midfielder by profession: the four real goalkeepers were finished, all spread out by Covid, along with 21 other players in the squad. Given the conditions, the River Plate seemed doomed, but since the futbol futbol, in the end it happened that the Argentine team he even beat the Colombians of the Santa Fe Independent 2-1 winning three key points for the passage of the Copa Libertadores round. With eleven players counted, without even a reserve on the bench, thanks to the saves of the midfielder Perez, who also played injured. A classic Latin American story, a la Osvaldo Soriano, of magical realism, of those you cannot read without smiling, if it weren’t for the fact that the episode is actually a testimony of how much the spread of the pandemic in Argentina has reached tragic levels.
The Argentine Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday evening that in the last 24 hours a double record of infections and deaths has been recorded. In fact, from the daily report of the health authorities it emerged that the infections were 35,543, which brought the general total to 3,371,508, while 745 people lost their lives, for a global toll of 71,771 deaths. Less than 45 million people live in Argentina, 8 of whom have received at least the first dose of the vaccine, above all the Chinese Sinopharm, on whose effectiveness the debate continues. Contagions do not seem to decrease, on the contrary, as we can see they are even increasing. One of the causes identified by the experts lies in the conditions of extreme poverty and very poor hygiene in which those who live in the notorious villas miserias, the favelas surrounding the capital, find themselves. There people live crowded and often without even running water and sewage.
In fact, the statistical worsening concerns not so much the center of the capital as the huge province – as big as Italy – where 59 municipalities are in phase 2 of the pandemic risk, 66 in phase 3 and 10 in phase 4. The extremely worrying scenario, so much so that the national government is studying together with the governors of the capital and the province of Buenos Aires a series of new measures that will be introduced starting next weekend. Argentina now has the world record for daily deaths of 16.46 per million inhabitants, more in Brazil than at 11.82. We are on the verge of medical collapse, he told the Guardian to Dr. Arnaldo Dubin, head of the intensive care unit at the Otamendi private hospital in Buenos Aires.
Peronist president Alberto Fernadez has promised tougher measures but the political clash with local governors slows everything down. To add emergency to emergency, inflation has also started: the country has reduced the export of beef for a month in an attempt to contain the surge in prices on its domestic market, with the cost of living increased by 46.3 % in the last 12 months. Between Covid and the economic crisis, Argentina on the brink. And unfortunately not a futbol match.
May 20, 2021 (change May 20, 2021 | 4:00 pm)
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