Public health the priority amid pandemic, says Argentine president

Public health takes priority over other matters amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Argentine President Alberto Fernandez said on Wednesday.

Speaking via a video conference at the opening of the new 52-bed Bicentennial Hospital in Ituzaingo, some 24 km west of Buenos Aires, the president said the facility will initially treat COVID-19 patients exclusively.

"From the president down to the last official, we know where the urgency is, where the needs are and what we must do," said Fernandez.

Ituzaingo has the country's lowest proportion of hospital beds per capita and lacks public hospitals, the president's office said in a statement.

"In four months we have expanded the capacity of our hospitals by 48 percent, with 3,600 beds, ventilators, personnel, a structure that today allows us to comfortably navigate this difficult situation we are undergoing," Minister of Health Gines Gonzalez Garcia said.

Argentina, which confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on March 3, has so far registered more than 220,000 cases and over 4,000 deaths from the disease.