Paraguay: outcry after Covid-19 rules flouted at ex-president daughter's wedding
Lax response to wedding of daughter of Horacio Cartes contrasts sharply with police’s strict enforcement of rules amid surge of deaths
William Costa in Asunción
Mon 24 Aug 2020 12.31 EDT
Paraguayans have reacted with indignation over a society wedding where scores of guests from the country’s political elite flouted social distancing rules and failed to wear obligatory facemasks, despite a surge of Covid-19 deaths in the country.
The lax official response to the wedding of the daughter of Horacio Cartes – a former president and one of the country’s wealthiest people – contrasts strongly with the police’s strict enforcement of lockdown rules, which has included the use of physical punishment and tasers.
Paraguay had been praised as one of the best examples of pandemic management in Latin America after the swift imposition of quarantine – after just two confirmed case of Covid-19 – maintained extremely low infection rates early in the pandemic.
But a recent surge of cases and deaths – now at 13,233 and 205 respectively – has left the country with the highest transmission rate of 68 countries analysed in an Imperial College and Sussex University study.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/24/paraguay-horacio-cartes-daughter-wedding-coronavirus
