Editor's note: This is the 28th article in the COVID-19 Global Roundup series. Here is the previous one.
As governments around the globe continue to combat the spread of the coronavirus, Latin American leaders are stepping up their efforts as cases are beginning to be documented in their countries.
During the last 24 hours, Uruguay and Bolivia have confirmed their first coronavirus-related deaths.
Venezuela is expecting a group of Chinese medical experts, headed by Huang Mao, director of the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine of the Provincial People's Hospital of Jiangsu Province, to arrive on Monday.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China is sending the medical expert group at the request of Venezuela, in order to share experience and guidance in combating the contagious disease.
The team is scheduled to leave on Sunday for Venezuela and arrive on Monday. This is the first medical expert group China has ever sent to the Americas to help fight the coronavirus.
Venezuela's National Assembly President and opposition leader Juan Guaido talks to the media as he takes part in a demonstration in Caracas, Venezuela March 10, 2020. /Reuters
On Sunday, opposition leader Juan Guaido called for an emergency government to manage the impact of the novel coronavirus. He said during an interview that Venezuela should form an emergency government made up of the opposition and some members of the ruling Socialist Party to receive foreign aid needed to confront the coronavirus outbreak.
President Nicolas Maduro has been broadly discredited among Western nations after his disputed 2018 re-election, leaving few foreign financiers willing to provide funds to improve a health care system decimated by years of economic crisis.
The U.S. charged Maduro with narco-terrorism and drug trafficking last week. The International Monetary Fund had previously rejected his request for a five billion U.S.-dollar loan to help it cope with the onslaught of coronavirus infections.
Venezuela has reported 129 cases of the novel coronavirus and three deaths, while the country remains under quarantine ordered by Maduro to prevent the spread of COVID-19. On top of that, the country is currently under the crisis of an explosion of malnutrition and infant mortality, as well as the biggest refugee crisis in South America.
Brazilian soldiers disinfect the Subway Central Station in Brasilia on March 29, 2020. /AFP
Although the number of confirmed cases remains comparatively low in Latin America, many countries have implemented stringent lockdown methods to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.
On Sunday, President of Argentina Alberto Fernández, who placed the country under nationwide lockdown just over a week ago in a bid to contain the novel coronavirus pandemic, said the shutdown would be extended until "Easter weekend," which is April 13 this year.
During the press conference, Fernandez said health experts recommended the extension of the national lockdown, and praised citizens for how they had adapted and "behaved as a society," as 90 percent of people were fully complying with quarantine orders.
The Health Ministry confirmed on Sunday that 75 new cases were registered in Argentina, raising the tally to 820, including 20 deaths.
On the contrary, Brazil has been advocating the reopening of schools and shops, with self-isolation necessary solely for those over 60 years old.
President Jair Bolsonaro visited a market area just outside the capital on Sunday to advocate for keeping Latin America's largest economy running instead of locking down activities to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus.
"What I have been hearing from people is that they want to work," Bolsonaro told a street vendor in one of several videos posted on his Twitter account.
However, Bolsonaro's social media campaign "Brazil can't stop" was banned on Saturday by a federal judge and ran into a barrage of criticism from state governors, politicians, public health experts and even his own health minister.
Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta highlighted the importance of containment as a means of fighting the coronavirus, which has already infected 3,904 people in Brazil, leaving 114 dead, according to the latest official figures.
Last week, a doctor working with the largest Amazon tribe, Tikunas, tested positive for the coronavirus, according to Brazil's Health Ministry, ringing alarm bells that the epidemic could spread to vulnerable and remote indigenous communities with devastating effect.
The doctor's infection is the first confirmed case of the virus directly present in an indigenous village. It raises fears of an outbreak that could be lethal for Brazil's 850,000 indigenous people, who live in communal hamlets. Social distancing can be hard for tribes to practice.
Municipal workers clean the streets and the facades in the Chorrillos neighborhood as Peru's government considers extending the days of the state of emergency and curfew to stop the spread of the coronavirus in Lima, Peru March 21, 2020. /Reuters
The lockdown in Colombia is expected to last for 19 days and also ends at the end of the Easter weekend. Everyone is ordered to stay home until April 13, and the elderly are confined until the end of May.
In order to cushion the impact on the vulnerable population during the economic shutdown, Colombian President Ivan Duque announced this week that three million Colombians who are covered by the government welfare programs would received a one-time cash transfer of 40 U.S. dollars next week, which is the equivalent to about 12 percent of the minimum monthly wage.
Duque also said during a televised address that about 2.6 million Colombian families who do receive a monthly pension from the government's "Families in Action" program will get an additional 80 U.S. dollars, "so that we can weather these storms without hunger in our country."
The country now has at least 539 people infected and eight dead from COVID-19.
Peru is now preparing for a massive economic stimulus package worth around 12 percent of gross domestic product to help mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, two weeks into the national shutdown.
The copper-rich country's economy minister, Maria Antonieta Alva, said late on Sunday that the Peruvian government is planning to pump 90 billion soles (26.41 billion U.S. dollars) into the key mining sector and support the citizens.
On March 15, the country announced a national state of emergency, including the compulsory social isolation, closing of borders, suspension of work activities in the public and private sectors. National military and army are put in place to make sure people are following orders.
Last week, Reuters reported that Peruvian police detained 2,568 people for breaking quarantine, bringing the total to more than 18,000.