BUENOS AIRES, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Argentine President Alberto Fernandez on Tuesday expressed his concern about the "tremendous voracity" of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in parts of the country.
"The pandemic is far from over. We are in the middle of the battle. The vaccine helps a lot but it does not do everything," the president said during an event in the city of Mercedes, about 100 km west of the Argentine capital Buenos Aires.
The government is looking at measures so that the coronavirus variant first identified in India "does not enter Argentina and does not ruin all the work we have done so far," said Fernandez.
"We are concerned about the pandemic in the interior of the country, where it is exhibiting tremendous voracity," he added.
Argentina, which registered its first case of COVID-19 on March 3, 2020, has registered 4,008,771 confirmed cases of infection and 82,667 deaths from the disease, of which 46.98 percent correspond to interior provinces, and the rest to the province of Buenos Aires and the capital city.
Fernandez said he was "sure we are going to defeat the pandemic and I am sure that we are going to move forward," but called on the public to take self-care measures.
Argentina began its vaccination plan against the disease on Dec. 29 and has so far applied more than 14.66 million doses. Enditem