Let me invite you to reflect. We have been a long time since that day when we announced that a virus had appeared in Argentina that made it very difficult to control it, since that day that I told you that it was a difficult battle, because we were fighting a disease that we did not have how to prevent and how to cure it. . And seeing the experiences that came to us from Europe and other latitudes we were putting together the Argentines (this president with the country's governors) we were preparing ourselves to face the situation. We have been fighting for many days now, to face the problem. Surveys say that 1 in 5 Argentines is not satisfied with quarantine mechanisms and I understand them, because 100% of Argentines would have liked not to have to isolate ourselves, continue to enjoy our daily lives and that the economy continued to function much better than it was. That was the illusion that I brought on December 10 educating I arrived. It has been 6 months since the day we assumed our functions and in those 6 months we had a very difficult time, which is facing the pandemic.
The coronavirus is that invisible enemy that you never know when you have just defeated. When it seems that things are calming down it begins to appear, and it is transmitted at a speed much faster today than at the beginning of all this. Which is the reason? The reason is that circulation increased, and as human circulation increases, human contact deepens and transmission becomes much easier. That is what happened to us. We knew that we were going to have the problem focused on urban centers where the haggard density was clearer, and we knew that there was a very clear risk in CABA and GBA, in what we call AMBA, which objectively is in demographic terms only one thing, beyond that there is an avenue called Gral.Paz that divides jurisdictions.
The truth is that we have observed that in recent times there the cases grew exponentially. Today practically 97% of the cases that are detected occur in AMBA and the last 20 days the increase in the speed of infections is striking. In the last 20 days in AMBA cases increased 147%. In the last 20 days, deaths in AMBA increased 95%. Objectively this was something we knew could happen and we were prepared to deal with it. The truth is that as I told you the first day, we need to save time to ensure that our health system improves and can serve all Argentines. What we are noticing is that with this acceleration we have to do something to stop the contagion rate, to alleviate the occupied beds and continue guaranteeing that all Argentines have the attention they deserve.
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Presidencia [19659005] The economic impact
For many of us, what we are solving and preparing is prolonging a problem that has economic consequences, I know, but I want to be frank, says the World Bank, not Alberto Fernández, which is the most economic crisis serious since 1870. And it does not speak of Argentina, it speaks of a world that is deteriorating economically as a consequence of this pandemic. Yesterday or the day before yesterday the bonds of all the world powers fell precisely because they glimpsed the possibility of a re-emergence of the pandemic in places where everyone believed they had already overcome the problem.
What was achieved with the quarantine
I want to do This reflection with you so that you understand that Alberto Fernández at the head never fell in love with the quarantine. Quarantine is a remedy for the pandemic, the only one we know of. What we are in love with is life and that is why we care for it so much and we are so weighed by that number of 1000 people who stopped being among us. For this reason, because of the awareness that there are no more deaths, we are making the decisions we make today. But I want all of us to understand that in this time that passed, all the effort was not useless. If we hadn't done what we did everything would have been bigger. And in this I could fill them with data. More than 2000 respirators incorporated into the health system. If in the Province of Buenos Aires we had not created the hospitals that we started, all the support that we put into hospital matters to generate hospitals that were not yet fully opened, and Axel would have continued with what he had, today his system would have collapsed. I want you to understand the enormous effort that we all made
If Horacio had not made the effort with Detect in the popular neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, detect close contacts and isolate them in hotels that the City of Buenos Aires itself hired, others would be the results that we would be presenting today.
I ask you to understand that we do not have to be angry with the remedy but with the disease. All this that happens to us is a product of the pandemic, not that we isolate ourselves. Isolation generates boredom, anger, discomfort, not being able to hug makes us ill but we are taking care of life. The economy deteriorates but recovers, what we are not going to recover are those 1000 Argentines who left us. And for those 1000 Argentines we cannot let that number grow without us doing something. So I invite you to make these reflections before we see some data that says that what I am talking about is true
Statistics
We are going to use the data that we always use. For example, the cumulative incidence rate per 100,000 inhabitants, how it worked in Argentina and the rest of Latin America. Know that today Latin America is the epicenter of the pandemic. It started in China, it continued in Europe, it went to the United States and today it is in Latin America. Look at what we achieved in this time of March 20 until today: We have managed to contain the number of infections by a lot. The incidence rate calculates how many people have been infected per 100,000 inhabitants. Look how we are. This is not the effort of a government, it is all of you.
Now we are going to see the accumulated cases by country, which is how many people were infected. Argentina is that red line that is almost on a par with the horizontal axis of the table, look at how Brazil, Peru, and Chile grew. Think that Brazil today has about 50 thousand dead and has 5 times the number of inhabitants that Argentina has. If Argentina had followed the rhythm of Brazil today it would have 10 thousand dead. Realize that the effort we have made has made a lot of sense.
Let's get out of the accumulated cases and go to the next table and see. How are the deceased every million inhabitants today. Look how they have grown and look at Argentina. Look at the US, Peru, Brazil, Chile. Chile has a third of the inhabitants of Argentina, look at the difference: 10 times more deaths per million inhabitants.
If we look at how the deceased have accumulated as we did in infections, look at the red line almost stuck to the axis, that it is Argentina, and look at our neighbors.
Now let's stop here for a second: it tells us that we have done all that and that it has brought us very negative economic consequences. This you are seeing is the drop in GDP that the IMF has just released as a projection for this year. There you have Italy, Spain, Mexico, UK, you have Argentina, Brazil, USA, Germany. They have many countries that were released and had a different criterion than quarantine and the results are the same as Argentina. When you look at the numbers, Argentina stands out from the rest. What do I mean by this: that the economic problem is not quarantine, it is the pandemic. And that affects everyone equally. Where is the incidence of quarantine? In the number of deaths. There one realizes that the effort made sense.
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Presidency
Expansion of infections in AMBA
Now, we are noticing: On May 21 we warned that Argentina was like this white, there were very few places with infections. On June 3, I showed them that the contagion to other places had left the metropolitan area. Today, June 25, that deepened. In AMBA the contagion spread and it began to spread by people who come to the city, or who go to Chaco, which is another worrying focus and returns to their province carrying the virus. And now they see that the map is no longer so white, it is much more dotted. We see that the epicenter is in AMBA. There is another epicenter that is Chaco that has a lower incidence of distribution because, due to the centralized structure of Argentina, it has less human trafficking.
We are seeing that AMBA is infecting the rest of the country. Look at this table: This is how infections have grown until June 4, look at the rest of the country and CABA. And look what happened from the last time we spoke to today. We have the problem in AMBA and then we have to make a huge effort in that place for two reasons. First to preserve the health of those who live there, second to be in solidarity with the rest of the country, we have to somehow isolate the AMBA from the rest of the country because the rest of the country is not having AMBA problems. We may also have to think about these measures for Chaco, which is having a contagion rate similar to that of AMBA but which does not transcend the rest of the country as if it transcends AMBA
Bed occupancy
We saw that we have as a consequence the growth of contagion is a necessary consequence in our hospitals. Look between April 5 and today how the use of intensive therapies has grown. The rest of the country is using 38 beds as of today, while AMBA is using 424 Intensive Care Units. And look how it has grown. In total 472 cases.
Today we have an occupancy rate that says that in AMBA 54.1% of ICU beds are occupied, 50% in CABA, 56.2% in PBA. This gives us a very serious guideline that we have to tackle the problem in this region. The occupation of beds is a determining fact as to keep looking without doing anything that infections continue to grow, that people continue to circulate, beds continue to be occupied. I have said many times that for us the care of life and health is the most important thing and that is why we are taking this series of measures, also knowing that Argentina today has a context that is not always the same. What is happening to the AMBA is not what is happening to the rest of Argentina and that is why one can already know that in 20 provinces 95% of businesses are already working.
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State assistance
The State has assisted 21 million Argentines out of the 45 million we are. That the IFE prevented between 2 and 4 million people from falling into poverty or indigence
That is why we are going to take a series of measures that tend to achieve two objectives. The first, to preserve the citizens of the AMBA. Close the AMBA again so that the circulation decreases drastically. By reducing circulation we are going to reduce infections, by reducing infections we are going to slow down the occupation of beds and while this is happening we are going to release the beds of people who are sick today
Measures for the next stage
That is why we have agreed between all an action plan We are going to have some measures: some have to do with public transport. The public transport service from 0 on Monday will be limited exclusively to essential services. There are 24 essential activities that were determined in the first isolation decree and it is only those that will be able to continue operating.
On Monday, all those who work for essential services will have to renew their authorization to circulate again. On Wednesday, July 1, we will take a more severe step. We are going to ask everyone to isolate themselves in their homes and they only go out to look for provisions that are necessary for daily life. From July 1 to July 17, this will work throughout the AMBA
Only essential services will continue to operate. They are everything related to safety, health, food, pharmacology. We are going to let some industries continue to operate in some areas of the GBA. Fundamentally those linked to essential activities, those that are exclusively in industrial parks. Those that require continuous processes that if one stops it frustrates production in the future and those that produce for export purposes
Public employment we are going to stop it because if we stop the attendance of administration workers at their workplace we will to collaborate with less circulation. We are going to do it in the three governments, we are going to invite the other powers. We are going to encourage our people to work remotely.
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Economic support measures
We know perfectly well that these decisions have an economic consequence. We have already spoken I do not know it. If any virtue I have is to listen, I am not a fool. I perfectly listen to the problems of those who have a business, freelancers, self-employed workers. We try to help everyone as much as we can. The support that the State has given to the private sector so that it does not hurt the pandemic so much almost reaches 3 points of GDP today.
We, in the areas that are affecting this closure, will continue to help workers and companies with the ATP and we did it with the May salaries that were collected in June, with the June dje that will be collected in July and we will do it with the July salaries that will be collected in August. Thus we will be preserving employment and relieving employers of a very high investment, which is investment in wages.
The IFE that we have already given twice to the entire country, now we are going to give it for the third time in this area of the metropolitan area of buenos aires, chaco and perhaps some other reason that we understand must enter the same line. The merchants, the independent professionals, have the possibility of accessing a rate 0 credit that the banks give that have to do with what they invoice and has a cap of 150 thousand pesos, which is guaranteed by the State. it is only to request it to the bank and the bank is going to grant them by crediting their credit cards. It is a way of appeasing and making the economic moment that many of these sectors are going through more bearable. I don't want to be distracted, that's why we contribute so many resources from the National State to help those sectors.
Plan to detect
Finally, we are going to take advantage of this time to intensify the care and detection of the virus. We have put in place a plan that is developed in the city and in the province, which is the Detect plan that allows us to detect who has been infected, give them the appropriate treatment, all their proximity links to test them, see who has been infected, isolate those with positive tests and treat them appropriately. This we will deepen with greater participation of people and a number of tests. I want to clarify that they are done in great quantity today in CABA and GBA. The data we are having is not the result of increasing tests, it is that circulation increases and contagion increases. Because it increases the tests but the infected increase in a greater proportion.
We are going to improve our medical diagnostic capacity because we are going to be able to use the faster tests soon and we are also going to make better use of the isolation centers. I want to make a very special request: it is to isolate yourself when the authority proposes, it is to preserve the health of you, your loved ones, simply take care of them and ask them to help us. It is very difficult to tell them to leave their houses and they isolate because they feel that they are marginalized, for we are incorporating them into a care system so I ask them to help us
We have been able to work very efficiently in the popular neighborhoods and what at some point It was a huge fear for us we were able to address it. You will remember that I told you that we had a challenge there because we had no history in the world of how to tackle the pandemic in a poor neighborhood. And yet we were able to do it. Many things were said about it, I am not going to paint about it because I think that today more than ever we have to be united.
We are fighting a battle with good results. We are taking these measures so that no Argentine is left without the health he deserves. We are doing it together, we have put aside all political differences, I ask you to understand. I listen to absolutely everything they say, everything they demand, but believe me, all this that I am proposing with the agreement and consensus of Horacio and Axel is what we believe is best for our people. So I ask you to help us. If we yuan everything will be easier. If they understand that what we are proposing is taking care of ourselves, it will be easier. If you understand that we want what happened in Europe where the beds ran out and they had to choose who was saved and who was not saved, they will understand easier. And I want to tell you. They don't know how much I value freedom, but the truth I want to remind you, freedom is always lost when one dies. To be free you have to live, let's take care of life. This is what we must do now.
Solidarity with the fatal victims
In closing: all my solidarity with those who have lost a loved one. They are not a statistic, they are men and women with faces, stories, affection, affection, who have stayed on the road. For them our solidarity. I ask you to think, to take the data to understand that we are not on the wrong path. They told us that we were the lost sheep of a flock when we proposed that early quarantine and it turns out that we were the sheep that acted correctly in a flock that did not act the same way and left dire consequences. And they told us that the economic consequences made us the crazy sheep that was going to take the economy to a moment of madness and history shows that we are in a crazy herd, that we are no exception. Let's not lower our arms, let's understand that together we are capable of the best results. Let us not be confused, we are a great country, a great society, let's not lower our arms now, we made so much effort, another effort is worth it.