Men fish on the shore of the Paraguay River during a lockdown to prevent spread of the new coronavirus in Lambare, Paraguay, Thursday, April 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Paraguay’s most honored writer, Augusto Roa Bastos, called his homeland “an island surrounded by land,” and it so far has indeed seemed isolated from the worst of the coronavirus pandemic sweeping through neighboring countries.
The nation of some 7 million people has recorded only 10 deaths as it shelters behind frontiers largely closed to guard against the illness, its once-busy border bridges are empty save for a stray dog or two.
A dog walks on the San Ignacio de Loyola International Bridge that crosses the Pilcomayo River, the natural border between Paraguay’s Puerto Falcon and Argentina’s Clorinda, Monday, April 27, 2020. The nations closed their borders amid the spread of the new coronavirus. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
It has recorded fewer than 750 confirmed cases, most of those among people who were placed in mandatory quarantine for 14 days after entering from Brazil or Argentina. Some have been housed in military barracks, some in hotels.
Regularly scheduled flights have been cancelled as well, leaving just a few planes on humanitarian missions, often bringing home Paraguayans who had been stranded abroad, or carrying foreigners to their own homelands — all after being checked for temperature.
Paraguay was among the first in the region to impose tight restrictions in March — telling people to stay home except to get food, medicine or medical care. Schools have long since closed. Churches are empty. Buses have been halted, forcing some some to sleep where they work.Full Coverage: Photography
Still, many venture out to find something to eat, or the money to buy it. A few ignore quarantine restrictions to cast fishing lines into the Paraguay River. Some line up for packages of food handed out at elementary schools. And some scrounge for what they can find in the trash bins of the central food distribution market in Asuncion, the capital.
The country also has been among the first to ease up. As of May 4, the government allowed many businesses to resume. Builders once again set to work on projects — at least those in the open air.
Empty swings sit idle in a park as families stay home amid a government ordered quarantine to help contain the spread of the new coronavirus in Asuncion, Paraguay, Tuesday, April 7, 2020. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz) Security guards follow Paraguay’s president as he tours a new medical facility that will receive people with COVID-19 in Itagua, Paraguay, Wednesday, April 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz) Nurses pose for a portrait as they work taking passengers’ temperatures at the main bus station on International Nurse Day in Asuncion, Paraguay, Tuesday, May 12, 2020. The government is allowing bus travel up 100 km (about 62 miles) from the capital amid a partial lockdown amid the new coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz) Constructors workers labor on the top of a building in Asuncion, Paraguay, Thursday, May 7, 2020 after the government authorized the reopening of some activity under a plan coined “Intelligent quarantine,” amid the spread of COVID-19. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz) People stand in designated areas as they wait in line for free food staples at Santa Ana primary school in Asuncion, Paraguay, Tuesday, March 31, 2020, part of an already existing food program through the Education Ministry. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz A worker sleeps on the warehouse floor at the “Mercado de Abasto,” a market for vendors, where he is stranded after buses halted during the quarantine amid the new coronavirus pandemic in Asuncion, Paraguay, Thursday, April 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz) Guillermina de Figueredo, 72, balances recycled newspapers on her head which she sells to merchants who use them as wrappers in Asuncion, Paraguay, Tuesday, May 5, 2020. The government authorized the reopening of some businesses under a plan coined “Intelligent quarantine.” (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz) Neighbors line up for free food staples outside Santa Ana primary school in Asuncion, Paraguay, part of an already existing food program through the Education Ministry, as people stay home from work amid the spread of COVID-19, Tuesday, March 31, 2020. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz) Archbishop Edmundo Valenzuela blesses a palm during Palm Sunday Mass inside the Cathedral, devoid of parishioners amid the new coronavirus pandemic in Asuncion, Paraguay, Sunday, April 4, 2020. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz) A man crosses an empty Eusebio Ayala Avenue during a curfew to curb the new coronavirus pandemic in Asuncion, Paraguay, Monday, March 16, 2020. Curfew is overnight from 8pm to 4am. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
