Buenos Aires, June 8 (RHC)-- Argentina’s health authorities launched a house-to-house operation to search for close contacts of coronavirus-infected persons in the neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, the capital city that is the epicenter of the pandemic in this South American country.

The Strategic Field Coronavirus Testing Device (DETECTAR), which has been implemented for several weeks in vulnerable neighborhoods, will be extended to the rest of the city.

Over the weekend, the operation began in Balvarena, Palermo and Flores, the three neighborhoods with the highest number of infected people according to the latest records.

"Door-to-door, we seek to identify close contacts to test them and to mitigate the contagiousness of the virus," the Health Strategies undersecretary Alejandro Costa said.

So far, Argentina has 21,037 COVID-19 cases, 642 dead, and 6,180 patients recovered.  The 85 percent of infected people live in either the capital city or the Buenos Aires province, where the national government ordered that the mandatory quarantine continues until June 28th.

Starting on Monday, most Argentinean provinces began a de-escalation of the quarantine and will enter a phase of mandatory social distancing.

Although many economic activities will resume, attendance at schools will continue to be suspended.