The Latin American nation has managed to tame an explosion of cases, which reached a peak of 18,326 daily cases confirmed in October. It saw a steady decline in case numbers over recent weeks to 5,062 confirmed on Monday.

The Ministry of Health said there had been 1,503,222 people infected so far with Covid-19, 41,041 dead and 1,340,120 patients recovered from the disease.

The Argentine government, which is also struggling to manage the blow dealt by Covid-19 to an economy heading for its third year in recession, has struck a number of deals to obtain vaccines with Britain’s AstraZeneca and with Russia, which is developing Sputnik V vaccine.

However, medics insist that precautionary isolation measures and robust virus tracking will be needed for the near future.

“We should not relax nor think, talk about or pin hopes on a vaccine,” said Carlos Kambourian, a paediatrician and former hospital director.

“We must drill down on testing, on selective isolation, on dynamic quarantines. We have to focus on that because we still have a year ahead where the case numbers will go up and down.”

Click here for our live update of the Covid-19 situation in Malaysia.