Paraguay Coronavirus Update: Country's Hunger Crisis Worsens Due To COVID-19 Outbreak

Paraguay might have recorded low COVID-19 positive cases, but there’s another crisis that’s lurking in the corner: acute starvation among the downtrodden.

The country in South America leaped into action and called for a nationwide lockdown of sorts—shutting shops, schools, and businesses—on marking their confirmed case on March 11. While the social distancing and self-isolation might be helping in the containment of the spread, a large number of families are going about their days without dwindling resources.

As per a recent report, a sizeable percent of Paraguay’s economy has no access to coronavirus benefits due to the nature of the job (upon belonging to the informal economy). The same report makes mention of how the government has been authorized to secure loans of $1.6bn to face the crisis.

However, the glitch is that only a small part of a promised scheme of emergency payments of about $76 and food packs have been distributed amongst the downtrodden. Simply put, despite the dire need of funds, a payment scheme is yet to be implemented.

Indigenous workers continue to grapple under the falling economy—being left with no way to sell their work. And worse, there hasn’t been any support offered as yet. A large section of the country believes the disparities in wealth get highlighted during such crises, as the government shows no mercy to those suffering, and the neglected communities are largely left to fend for themselves.

Paraguayans are on the lookout for basic essentials and are pretty convinced that they will run out of the dwindling resources. The government of President Mario Abdo Benítez has been heavily criticized for not offering adequate resources to help the economically backward sections to wade through the global health crisis.

Yet, if there’s a silver lining to all this, it has got to be the coming together of different communities. “The mutual solidarity on display is outstanding; poor people are helping other poor people. We’re all helping and giving what we can: we’re cooking communally so that we can get food to people,” said Óscar Pereira, member of a residents’ organization in the deprived Tacumbú neighborhood of Asunción, the capital to a media outlet.