COVID-19 pandemic in Uruguay

The COVID-19 pandemic in Uruguay has resulted in 1,041,246^[1] confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 7,664^[1] deaths.

The first cases in Uruguay were reported on 13 March 2020 by the Ministry of Public Health.^[2] The early cases were imported from Italy and Spain, with some local transmissions.^[3] The majority of early cases were traced to a wedding with 500 people in attendance in Montevideo, attended by a Uruguayan fashion designer who returned from Spain and later tested positive.^[4][5] Various containment measures were introduced in mid-March, and major restrictions on movement followed in late March. Uruguay is one of the few countries in Latin America to have been able to avoid large outbreaks for a considerable amount of time due to their closing of borders with neighboring countries. The country had one of the lowest numbers of active cases per population in South America up until December when the public health authorities announced that large outbreaks had led to community transmission in Montevideo.^[6] On 23 January 2021, President Luis Lacalle Pou announced during a press conference that the government purchased doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Sinovac Biotech, while negotiating with a third manufacturer.^[7]