BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez on Thursday ruled out imposing a curfew to curb crowds and gatherings amid an increase in the novel coronavirus disease, but said officials were looking at alternative measures.
"We are contemplating the possibility of the security forces breaking up crowds, but we are not going to implement a curfew," Fernandez told a local radio station.
"We are going to let New Year's Eve pass and starting next week we are going to look at this with a magnifying glass to see how we can resolve it," the president said.
In December, "social gatherings and marches of different kinds and for different reasons were held, all things that could have helped the virus to circulate," noted Fernandez.
The South American country registered its first case of COVID-19 on March 3, and confirmed 1,613,928 cases and 43,163 deaths from the disease as of Wednesday night.
