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] On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan, Hubei, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.
[22][23] On 17 March it was learned that other wedding attendees, three students at a private university who had attended in-person classes since then, had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Many of these early cases were related to a 7 March wedding in Carrasco with 500 people, attended by a returnee from Spain who later developed symptoms and tested positive for COVID-19.
All political parties temporarily suspended campaign events ahead of the municipal elections, which were postponed from May to September.
[32] The University of the Republic cancelled classes on 13 March 2020,[33] and later announced plans for distance learning for the remainder of the semester.
[35] A plan to let students return to school on a voluntary basis starting in June 2020 was announced by president Luis Lacalle Pou on 21 May 2020.
Private schools that don't use Ceibal instead started using Zoom, Cisco Webex, WhatsApp, Google Classroom, and Moodle.
[38] The government recommended remote work and not traveling, and introduced a free service for medical consultation by phone.
[41] The Ministry of the Interior announced that patrol officers would circulate with loudspeakers asking citizens not to meet in large groups.
[25] Amid thousands of unemployment insurance claims, the government announced subsidies and other measures to cushion the economic impact of the pandemic.
[47] On 17 April, President Lacalle Pou informed that his administration decided to create a group, locally known as the GACH, made up of experts in order to define methods and studies to advise the government.
[48] As of 2 December, given the increase in cases (especially in Montevideo), a series of temporary measures were put into effect to slow growth.
In addition, it was announced that public shows would resume with a minimum capacity, and sports without spectators, as well as allowing bars and restaurants to extend their opening hours until 2 am.
[51] On 27 January 2021 it was announced that as of 1 February the borders would reopen to Uruguayan citizens, resident foreigners and in the cases of the exceptions provided.
In addition, he informed that the "COVID Tribute", a tax for those officials whose salaries exceed UYU 120,000 a month, would be reinstated and that it would be used towards the "Coronavirus Fund".
On June 14, fourth, fifth and sixth year students from urban schools throughout the country, except those in Montevideo, Canelones and Salto, who returned to face-to-face classes on the 21st.
[64] On July 5, public shows were enabled, as well as parties and events of similar characteristics, and food courts, with capacity limitations.
[66] On November 1, the borders were opened,[67] allowing entry to foreigners who prove they had been inoculated with one or two doses, depending on the vaccine; and those who have had the disease within the last 90 days prior to arrival in the country.
[7] However, on 27 January 2021, Dimas Covas, director of the Instituto Butantan, the research centre which administers the purchases of Sinovac vaccines in Latin America, stated that there was not an agreement yet between the centre and Uruguay's Public Health Ministry, thus contradicting the statement that the Uruguayan government had purchased Sinovac vaccines.
[73] In addition, the Uruguayan government intends to acquire 1.5 million vaccines from the COVAX initiative of the World Health Organization in March 2021.
[76][77] Vaccinations began on 1 March,[78] being active workers, under 60, from the field of education, the Institute for Children and Adolescents, the police, the Armed Forces, firefighters and customs officials of airports, ports and dry borders, the first to be inoculated.