Argentina unveils plan to emerge from lockdown

Buenos Aires: Argentine President Alberto Fernandez has unveiled a plan to "responsibly and cautiously" emerge from lockdown and resume activities in step with the ongoing vaccination drive against the Covid-19.

"The vaccine is the pandemic's exit door, each month we are all closer to passing through it. We are responsibly going to live the life we want again," Xinhua news agency quoted the President as saying in an address to the nation on Friday.

"In August we will apply more than 7 million second doses. In addition, we will continue to apply the first doses to adolescents aged 12 to 17 who have been prioritized," he said.

As part of the plan, starting Saturday the number of people who can gather together will be expanded "little by little", leading to the eventual reopening of schools, "another collective achievement", he added.

According to Fernandez, "the Argentine economy is growing", and is expected to see around 7 per cent growth in 2021 and 4.5 percent in 2022.

"The vaccine is the best economic policy. Thanks to the vaccination, we are recovering," the President added.

Since the onset of the pandemic early last year, Argentina has registered 4,989,402 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 107,023 deaths from the disease.

The country has administered more than 33.82 million vaccines since December 2020.