Guatemala reports 46 new cases of COVID-19, its highest number in one day

Guatemala reached 430 COVID-19 cases in its territory this Friday, including 46 new infections in the last 24 hours, the highest daily number since the first case was detected on March 13, an official source reported.

The President of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, explained on a national chain that of the 46 new cases, 23 originated from the contagion of a single person "who infected" the others while "all were in quarantine."

The Central American country did not register deaths in the last 24 hours, so to date 11 people have died due to the coronavirus, according to Giammattei.

The governor also detailed that in the group of 46 new infected there is a baby of almost three months old, who is already hospitalized in a hospital in the south of Guatemala City adapted to care for carriers of the disease.

Giammattei congratulated himself in his intervention on Friday for the performance of 517 tests to detect the disease in the last 24 hours, after the incorporation in the last five days of four public laboratories to carry out the tests.

Neither the president nor the health authorities have reported on the total number of tests carried out to date. The last update, about 15 days ago, noted that nearly 2,500 tests had been performed.

At that time, however, the country only had the capacity to do between 100 and 300 tests a day, as opposed to the 500 possible since this week.

THE DAY OF MORE CASES

Guatemala had already registered the highest number of those infected since the detection of COVID-19 on Thursday, with 42 new cases in a single day, so the 46 cases this Friday represent a new record increase in the outbreak.

The Central American nation completed a month on Thursday under the curfew implemented to prevent the expansion of the coronavirus, waiting for the peak of the disease in the last days of April and the first two weeks of May, according to Giammattei warned weeks ago.

The regulation, however, was relaxed from last Monday from 6 in the afternoon to 4 in the morning, a decision that, according to Giammattei's reasoning, would allow to avoid crowds in supermarkets and banks.

The curfew and general confinement ordered since March 16 have reduced displacement, but more than 70% of the economically active population - 7 million people - live in informality and must go out in search of income.

According to the Ministry of Health, 58 percent of the 430 cases are in the central region of the country, where the capital is located.

The departments of western Guatemala, which are adjacent to Mexico, rank second in terms of regions with 18 percent of the total number of coronavirus cases in the territory. The north, east and south share the remaining percentage (24%).