Without social distancing, hundreds of people made year-end purchases in Flores (Photo: TN capture).
Just hours before the arrival of 2021, hundreds of people took to the streets of Flores to finish shopping for the end of the year. The images, which were transmitted by TN, generated concern in the full increase of cases of coronavirus In Buenos Aires city.
Despite recent warnings from President Alberto Fernández, most did not respect social distancing and there were even those who did not wear masks, one of the main sanitary measures established to prevent the spread of the disease.
// Alberto Fernández warned: “If the relaxation continues, the security forces will take to the streets to dispel the people”
One of the highest concentrations of people was registered at the avenue crossing Nazca and Bogotá, where manteros and merchants organized a sort of open-air market in the middle of the street, although the lines of vendors and customers extended for more than five blocks around.
In order not to occupy the sidewalks, where different businesses operate, the stalls of clothing, jewelry and other items were located on the pavement, on each side of Bogotá, and allowed the passage of people in the middle of both sectors. However, the place was overwhelmed by a crowd that was present from the early hours of the morning. This made maintaining social distancing an almost impossible task.
Emergency meeting between City, Province and Nation
As a result of the significant increase in cases registered at the country level and in particular in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires (AMBA) on Wednesday, the president Alberto Fernandez held an emergency meeting at the Olivos Residence with the head of the Buenos Aires government, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, and the governor of the province of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof.
After the meeting, the head of state reported that he reviewed the coronavirus figures with the officials of both districts and that they analyzed the steps to follow in the face of the escalation of infections. In addition, he pointed out that they will meet again in the next few days to “make a Weekly tracking”, and explained that they agreed to “recommend to all increase care because the problem is not over ”.
Finally, Fernández issued a warning with a view to the next few weeks. “If the situation does not ease and the relaxation continues, we will see how the security forces begin to act in the streets to dissipate people and prevent agglomerations from happening ”, he anticipated.
Even so, the president clarified that future measures have not yet been defined. “We are going to let the end of the year go by and, starting next week, we will look with a magnifying glass to see how we solve this “, Hill.