The head of Government, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, returned from his rest in Cariló during the long weekend and announced that he has covid-19. Therefore, it was isolated. As he was in a barbecue with other PRO leaders, they too must isolate themselves. Specifically, the holder of the PRO block in Deputies, Cristian Ritondo, who was the host of the barbecue, must do so. The mayor of Pinamar, Martín Yeza, who already had coronavirus, was also present. It was one of the first political meetings of Larreta facing an electoral year. There were doubts about whether the head of government complied with the protocols that his own administration regulated.
As soon as he returned from a long weekend in Cariló, Larreta announced that he should isolate himself. “Yesterday I returned from the Coast, where I spent the weekend with my family. Since I had a headache, I decided not to wait and swab. Today the result was positive. I’m good, at home. Please continue to take care of ourselves and, at the first symptom or when we return from vacation, let’s take the test, “recommended the head of government.
It was funny that he mentioned that he did the test without waiting. Some pointed out that, according to Buenos Aires regulations, the swab had to be done. It is something that he himself explained in the previous tweet he published: “Remember that if you travel more than 150 km from the City and for more than 4 days, it is important that you take an appointment to take the test when they return to any of the testing centers. I already did, “the message read.
“He was going to do it the same,” they responded in the Buenos Aires government. They pointed out that since he started to feel bad, he went straight to get it done, but planned to swab anyway. The Buenos Aires Minister of Health, Fernán Quirós, reported that Larreta is in good health: “He is very well, so it will be a matter of isolating himself, taking care of him and the clinical picture evolving”.
During the long weekend, specifically, on January 1, a young economist showed a photo that he took with Larreta on his Twitter account. In the photo, both appear without a chinstrap
After it was learned that Larreta had tested positive, the young man joked that he had not infected it, although he later admitted that he was going to swab himself. “We were together 15 seconds,” he said. In the surroundings of the head of Government, they clarified that during that day Larreta was jogging in the square and that, for that reason, he was not wearing a chinstrap when the photo was taken.
The head of government was in political meetings with other PRO leaders over the weekend – given that it is an electoral year that has already begun -, which will again lead to a string of swabs and isolations. Specifically, Larreta met with the head of the PRO bloc Cristian Ritondo; the mayor of Pinamar, Martín Yeza; the Secretary General of the Buenos Aires Government, Fernando Straface and the Undersecretary of Urban Cooperation, Lucas Delfino. These last two are from Buenos Aires officials who also carve in the electoral assembly of Larreta.
The meeting was on Monday night at Ritondo’s house in Pinamar, where the deputy spends his vacation. They ate a snack and a roast. As commented by the diners, it was outdoors and with precautions (they even named the glasses so as not to be confused). Anyway, Ritondo was isolated and is going to swab. The same Delfino, who will swab next Friday. Straface will not be tested, but will be isolated. Yeza already had coronavirus, so he will not be isolated. “A serological test was done and he has good defenses. He must be attentive to any symptoms and take extreme care,” they indicated close to the mayor. While, Last Wednesday, Larreta was with President Alberto Fernández and with Governor Axel Kicillof.
The situation is similar to that it was lived when the former Buenos Aires governor María Eugenia Vidal tested positive. A series of reserved meetings of the moderate wing began to be known, among which was included one in which were Larreta, Ritondo, Senator Martín Lousteau and the former Minister of Deputies Emilio Monzó. It was the first meeting between Vidal and Monzó after they were estranged for a large part of Macri’s four years as president. After that meeting, several swabbed. From the surroundings of Lousteau they considered that it was not necessary because “it was maintained much more than the social distance”. Other contacts of Vidal had to be swapped, such as his former chief of staff Federico Salvai and former Minister of Social Development Carolina Stanley.
That meeting between the leaders of the moderate wing, which became known for the virus, also showed, at that time in 2020, the regroupings of “post-macroism” and the search to build a political pole already without the former president. The barbecue in Pinamar of the head of Government, in this case, responds more to the assembly of this year, in which he seeks to build his candidacy by 2023.
Beyond the malaise, according to what the Buenos Aires government told this newspaper, Larreta continued working remotely throughout the day. He was in the videoconference with President Alberto Fernandez -which was extensive-, he had several video calls on WhatsApp and continued the rest of the day governing by Zoom.