Argentine president warns pandemic 'not over', calls on public to be 'more responsible'

BUENOS AIRES - Argentine President Alberto Fernandez on Monday urged the public to be "more responsible" in combating the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), warning the pandemic "is not over".

"We are still experiencing the tough times of the pandemic. It is not over," said the president during the opening of a municipal hospital in the city of Escobar, 50 km north of the capital Buenos Aires.

"The pandemic, in the end, left us with more deaths than we thought we would have. That has to force us to be more responsible, to understand that the virus is still circulating among us, and we must take care of ourselves and we must take care of the other person," he added.

Argentina has so far registered 711,325 confirmed cases of infection and 15,749 deaths, representing a fatality rate of 2.2 percent, according to the Ministry of Health.

"We are seeing that the problem, which was initially concentrated in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires, is now spreading to the interior of the country," said Fernandez.

The capital has seen 123,288 cases of COVID-19, while the province of Buenos Aires, the most populated in Argentina, has reported 401,862 cases.