Yet crazy about football, a majority of Argentines have spoken out against the holding of the 2021 Copa América in their country hit by a wave of Covid-19 contagion, according to a poll published on Friday. Seven in ten respondents felt that Argentina “should not host” the continental tournament from June 13 to July 10, while only 20% were in favor of its holding and 10% did not speak. According to the same survey, 59% of Argentines say they are “very or moderately concerned” by the spread of the coronavirus in the country. This poll comes two days after the government’s announcement to condition the organization of the tournament to a “strict protocol”.
“We must be assured that the Conmebol”, the body of South American football, “is able to meet the demands that we formulate”, declared Thursday the head of government Santiago Cafiero. Among these conditions is the reduction in the number of members of each delegation. After the withdrawal of Colombia, co-organizer of the tournament, Conmebol has not yet officially designated Argentina as the only host of the competition.
The Conmebol has also started to vaccinate various players and members of the management with the 50,000 doses offered by the Chinese laboratory Sinovac which has not been approved by the Argentine authorities. But “vaccinating 15 days before the competition is not a solution”, said the Minister of Health, Carla Vizzotti, on the radio on Friday. “We fear that this is a false sense of security”, because according to her “the Sinovac vaccine has an infection prevention effectiveness of 50%”. “It would be one more tool but in no way replaces protocols, prevention,” she added.
Argentina, 45 million people, on Thursday recorded a record number of 41,080 infections and 551 deaths in 24 hours. It is behind neighboring Uruguay, the country in the world with the highest number of deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days. The government is counting on strict confinement, which began last Saturday and ends next Sunday, to curb the contagion curve before the start of the competition, which will take place behind closed doors.
The telephone survey carried out by the consulting firm Poliarquia was carried out with a representative sample of 1,274 people.
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