AP PHOTOS: Paraguay, landlocked ‘iceland’ amid pandemic
Paraguay’s most honored writer, Augusto Roa Bastos, called his homeland “an island surrounded by land,” and it has so far indeed seemed insulated from the worst of the coronavirus pandemic sweeping neighboring countries.
The nation of about 7 million people has recorded just 10 deaths as it shelters behind largely closed borders to ward off the disease, its once-busy border bridges empty except for a stray dog or two.
It has recorded fewer than 750 confirmed cases, most of them among people who were placed in mandatory quarantine for 14 days after arriving from Brazil or Argentina. Some have been kept in military rooms, others in hotels.
Regularly scheduled flights have also been canceled and only a handful of planes remain on humanitarian missions, often repatriating Paraguayans who had been stranded abroad or repatriating foreigners to their own countries – all after temperature checks.
Paraguay was among the first in the region to impose strict restrictions in March – telling people to stay at home except to get food, medicine or medical care. Schools have long been closed. Churches are empty. Buses have been stopped, forcing some to sleep where they work.
Yet many go out to find something to eat, or money to buy it. Some ignore quarantine restrictions to cast fishing lines into the Paraguay River. Some people line up for food parcels delivered to primary schools. And some scavenge what they can find in bins at a central food distribution market in Asuncion, the capital.
The country has also been among the first to relax. As of May 4, the government allowed many businesses to reopen. Builders once again went to work on projects – at least the open-air ones.