“Women Are Leading the Fight Against Coronavirus in Argentina's Vulnerable Communities” – 21 July 2020

…As COVID-19 spikes across the country, women are shouldering much of the vital work to protect marginalized groups…The pandemic is wreaking havoc in Latin America, considered the epicenter of COVID-19 since late May. The region has more than 3.7 million reported cases. There are now more than 160,000 fatalities across Latin America and the Caribbean. About half are in Brazil, the second highest tally after the United States. In neighboring Argentina, population 45 million, a strict quarantine kept numbers low early on. But as restrictions lifted, infections spiked. Reported cases have eclipsed 130,000. More than 2,300 people have died. This month, authorities placed the hardest hit zones of the capital city of Buenos Aires and the densely populated ring around it back it into another hard lockdown. The cases keep climbing. Argentina was already grappling with a recession and soaring poverty before the crisis hit, and all of that is expected to get worse. In a region as unequal as Latin America, women are in a particularly vulnerable position, the United Nations has warned. They earn less, are more likely to hold precarious jobs, and shoulder the bulk of unpaid caregiving at home. As social and economic conditions fray, women are facing more domestic violence, and it is harder for them to assert their reproductive rights. The hardship is heavier for those in marginalized groups, including Indigenous women, women of African descent, migrants, and the trans community. Women are also on the vanguard of the battle against COVID-19. That's the case in Argentina, where they are feeding the hungry, paying house calls on the sick, toiling away in laboratories, and delivering essential health care…