6 reasons I’m grateful I lived in Uruguay for the pandemic

3. Steady political leadership

Remarkably a new government had come into power on March 1 2020, just thirteen days before the first Covid-19 cases were announced in Uruguay and two weeks before they decided to close the borders of Uruguay to the world. During the first few months the new president and members of the cabinet gave nightly briefings in the form of press conferences. They answered the questions that were on all of our minds with common sense and plain language. The politicians were careful never to lock themselves into action or obligations by a particular date. Instead they referred to stages: for instance, once case numbers reach ‘x’ stage, then ‘y’ can change. So there was no backpedalling on dates or decisions. Whether they had voted for the government or not, approval ratings showed that most people felt that the country was in steady hands—and that we were being treated as adults.

4. A monitoring app within seven days

It still seems incredible to me that within just one week there was an application to download onto our telephones which showed us cases recorded each day, deaths and the situation of case numbers in different parts of the country. “The Uruguayan government needed a digital relationship with every citizen — it was like a war situation,” said one of the brains behind the app. It worked. The level of detail and transparency of the data was reassuring. The application was later updated and now shows us the rate of vaccination—the numbers of people getting vaccinated (first dose, second dose, second dose plus 15 days (ie fully vaccinated) and now the third booster) update on an hourly basis before our eyes. The same application can be used to request a PCR test and shows our vaccination status. It’s really quite remarkable. Hats off to the developers who worked around the clock to get it out.

5. One of the fastest vaccine campaigns in the world

Uruguay has regularly been in the top five countries rolling out vaccines to their population most quickly, alongside nations like Israel, the UK and USA. On August 24, the eve of anniversary of Uruguay’s Declaration of Independence, seventy percent of the population became fully vaccinated against Covid-19. This is particularly noteworthy when considering that, as a small country with limited bargaining power, there were problems initially getting hold of vaccines. Uruguay was the last country in Latin America to receive supplies of the vaccine at the end of February, months after more developed nations. In the meantime, Uruguay went ahead and organised wait lists. We used the Coronavirus app to book our spot in a waiting list. Once vaccines became available for our age group we were given a slot for our first vaccination and a slot with an identical time and place exactly one month later for our second dose. The decision to acquire Coronavac was made because it was available in quantities that would allow vaccination to get started. The available doses of Pfizer were initially limited to emergency workers. Once Pfizer was readily available, booster jabs were offered, using the aforementioned waiting list.

6. Uruguayan willingness to get vaccinated

Once sufficient vaccines arrived, the health ministry’s original plan was to have 70% of the population immunised against Covid-19 by September vaccinating at a rate of 30,000 a day—around one in every 100 Uruguayans. However, after receiving a new consignment of shots, additional vaccination centres opened to respond to demand and the number of people signing up doubled. The government had put all its chips on the vaccination campaign and needed the people to step up. Uruguayans traditionally are used to nationwide health campaigns and respond to them positively. Childhood vaccinations are obligatory and a requirement for schools and sports. There was a period of three months this year when the number of coronavirus cases and deaths was dire. From very low or zero daily deaths in 2020, a busload of citizens was dying each day between April and June 2021. Undoubtedly people had felt the effects of the virus on their family and friends. Whatever their motivation, Uruguayans signed up in droves to the vaccination waiting lists. Additionally they’ve entrusted their children. Uruguay is the first country in Latin America and one of the first in the world to vaccinate teens. Today, as the borders open for the first time to the outside world in nineteen long months, 74% of the population is fully vaccinated, 34% have a booster third shot and 85% of 12-19 years olds have had at least one shot.