Coronavirus: Uruguay wants to follow South Korea's screening strategy

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Uruguay wants to draw inspiration from the South Korean model in its management of the coronavirus crisis. The country registers to date 473 cases of contamination with Covid-19 and seven deaths on its territory. To contain the epidemic, as in South Korea, the government wants to support a massive screening strategy, while keeping the economy as active as possible.

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With our correspondent in Montevideo, Théo Conscience

Thanks to Covid-19 diagnostic tests developed locally, Uruguay wants to give itself the means to adopt a massive screening strategy, explains its Minister of Health, Daniel Salinas. " Internationally, our curves are among the best in terms of the number of people infected and the diagnostic capabilities ," he notes.

The government hopes to be able to perform 1,000 screenings a day soon. As a proportion of its population, Uruguay would then test more people daily than South Korea, a model country in its massive screening strategy. Nicolás Jodal developed the CoronavirusUy application, which links infected people to health authorities.

No total containment

“ The mechanism that South Korea has found and that we are putting in place is that of a screening station. A person comes by car, and without having to get off, we give him the test, ”he explains. Like South Korea, Uruguay has also chosen not to impose mandatory containment. The government is banking on an incentive for social isolation, so as not to put the country on hold. “ We are focusing our efforts to keep the economy running. The engines of the economy must not die out, ”said the Minister of Economy, Azucena Arbeleche.

A choice criticized by the left opposition. Former President Tabaré Vazquez, an oncologist by training, called for total and compulsory confinement to preserve the population.

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• Coronavirus
• Uruguay
• Health and Medicine