The virus was confirmed to have reached Paraguay on March 7, 2020, in a 32-year-old man from Guayaquil, Ecuador, living in San Lorenzo, Central Department.

On March 10, 2020, the Paraguayan government suspended classes and all activities that involved groups of people, as well as public and private events, with the goal of avoiding the spread of the virus, pursuant to Decree no.

After October 5, 2020, the country moved to a new phase known as the "Covid way of living," relaxing restrictions on most activities while maintaining an increased focus on sanitation until a vaccine or cure was found.

On January 12, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on December 31, 2019.

Marcelo Ebrard, Mexican Foreign Minister, announced on May 12 that Mexico will donate 400,000 doses of Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Paraguay, Belize, and Bolivia.

[32] Foreign travelers not residing in Paraguay, aged 18 and over, must present a complete vaccination record as to enter the country.

[33] On March 10, 2020, the Paraguayan government suspended classes and all activities that involve groups of people, as well as public and private events, with the goal of avoiding the spread of the virus, pursuant to Decree no.

On August 23, Asunción and Central department entered a Social Quarantine (Phase 3 with more restrictions, especially in the social sphere, for example, curfew between 8 pm to 5 am, prohibition of alcohol sales at night, long-distance trips suspended on weekends, individual physical activity restricted, etc.).

As announced on October 2, 2020, by the Minister of Health, the phases of Intelligent Quarantine in the country are finalized, to advance to a kind of new normal known as the "covid way of living", due to the plateau reached in the contagions.

At the end of February 2021, there is an increase in the contagion curve, after a plateau of several months, exceeding the thousand daily infections on average, as a result of the proliferation of clandestine social events, and the number of tourists who traveled both inside and outside the country, especially Brazil.

[35] This excessive increase in infections caused a new saturation in the public health system, to the point that emergency surgeries had to be suspended and doctors must choose who is more likely to live to occupy an ICU bed.

Since end of March 2020, the government has used existing infrastructure of military bases, warehouses, police stations, and indoor sports complexes called "albergues" (shelters) to accommodate large groups of individuals -who returned from abroad (mainly from Brazil and neighboring countries.)

[citation needed] The advisory minister for International Affairs of the Presidency of the Republic, reported that by the end of June more than 8,000 returnees had already passed through shelters (at least 10% of them testing positive for coronavirus).

[citation needed] Paraguay's economy will contract between 2.5% and 5% in 2020 due to the halt in economic activities brought on by social isolation measures to contain the coronavirus.

[citation needed] But the government of President Mario Abdo Benítez has been heavily criticised for failing to support people left without income during the total quarantine.

Sixty-five per cent of Paraguay's workers earn their living in the informal economy and have no access to benefits during the coronavirus crisis.