But now, eight months in, on November 28 we hit the psychological barrier of 1,000+ active cases in the country. Why has this happened?

To put it simply, life in Uruguay has been pretty much back to normal for months, with the addition of masks and social distancing, which are compulsory in certain places like shops and public transport.

It is inevitable that the numbers are rising as predicted in models made by the GACH, the honorary scientific committee put together at the start of the pandemic. After going from 20 new cases a day in March, down to zero cases in June, November was the first time ever we started experiencing 100+ new cases per day.

The important thing is that starting December, there are just 23 people in intensive care, and Uruguay grew its capacity to over 2,000 ICU beds at the start of the pandemic. And though painful, almost all of the total 80 deaths nationwide have been folks in their 70s, 80s, and 90s, with secondary health conditions [Editor’s note: data updated December 4th, 2020].

To further put things into perspective, a friend of mine from New Mexico (population: 2,300,000) told me in that state alone there were more than 2,000 new cases and 20 to 30 new deaths on the daily. That contrast speaks volumes on how Uruguay is handling this pandemic.

This summer, the government made the difficult decision to keep the borders closed. Of course, everyone is concerned about what will happen over the holidays with typically gregarious Uruguayans and people flocking to the beach over New Years’.

Uruguay’s covid response: tracing, testing, reliance on science

So how does Uruguay still have EU code green status? (i.e. less than 4% of positive cases, Uruguay is currently at 2%).

In a nutshell, it’s down to:

• a good tracing system,
• high rates of testing,
• a response by the population, based on personal responsibility and solidarity, and
• clear consistent measures by the government, especially the Ministry of Public Health, only taken after consultations with the GACH.