Why Is Uruguay Beating Latin America’s Coronavirus Curse?
Its demographics and location make it prime pandemic territory. But it has assets its neighbors lack.
Uruguay is winning its race against the pandemic.
Photographer: Ernesto Ryan/Getty Images South America
As the novel coronavirus cyclones through Latin America, it has staggered almost every nation. So how to explain Uruguay? Its infection rate of 2.1 cases per million inhabitants is the second lowest in South America and already falling, with just 22 fatalities by May 27. Ahead of many of its neighbors, Uruguay is already glimpsing a safe return to economic normalcy.
It might not have turned out this way. The nation of 3.5 million people is rife with risks. It is the Latin American nation with the largest share of elderly, and all but 4% of the national population lives in cities. Those are the kind of demographics made for contagion. Uruguay is wedged between ailing giants: Brazil is the pandemic’s new epicenter, while Argentina was already nearing economic collapse when it defaulted on its debt last week.