Medical workers inquire about the health status of a citizen in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 8, 2020. Door-to-door tests for suspected COVID-19 cases were carried out in Buenos Aires.Photo:Xinhua

 
The Argentine government warned on Friday that the country is experiencing a sustained increase in infections and deaths from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), for which it has decided to strengthen case detection operations in certain areas of the country.

"We see a sustained increase ... in relation to the number of cases and the number of deaths," said the Health Ministry's Secretary of Access to Health Carla Vizzotti.

"For this reason, we are working in this second stage with the launch of the Federal Detection program ... to strengthen the detection of cases, and with teams distributed throughout the country to manage confirmed cases to minimize the impact of the pandemic," Vizzotti said.

The Federal Detection program will include the dispatch of health teams to various parts of the country, the distribution of 800,000 antigen tests, and the disbursement of 10 billion pesos (about 131 million US dollars) to improve health infrastructure.

Argentina registered its first case of COVID-19 on March 3 and the country entered a national quarantine on March 20, a measure which is slated to end on Oct. 11.

As of Thursday night, Argentina had registered 20,288 deaths and 765,002 cases of COVID-19.