Argentines should "not get inured" to pandemic's high daily death toll, warns president

BUENOS AIRES, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Argentine President Alberto Fernandez on Friday warned the public to "not get inured to living with 300 to 400 daily deaths" from the novel coronavirus disease, and urged them to "not lower your guard."

During a videoconference marking the vaccination of 3 million people in the province of Buenos Aires, the president said his government is making "an enormous effort to obtain vaccines" that will allow the immunization campaign launched on Dec. 29 to stay on track.

At a different event, Health Minister Carla Vizzotti noted the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA), home to the nation's capital, was seeing a decline in new cases of infection, however the transmission rate was rising or just stabilized in many other provinces.

"The challenge is to reduce the transmission of cases," Vizzotti told a videoconference that gathered the governors and health ministers of the southern provinces of Tierra del Fuego, Rio Negro, Neuquen, Santa Cruz and Chubut, and the central province of La Pampa, according to a statement from the health ministry.

Argentina registered its first case of COVID-19 on March 3, 2020 and as of Thursday confirmed 3,095,582 cases of infection and 66,263 deaths from the disease.

Argentina has so far applied 8,820,691 doses of vaccine against COVID-19.