Photos representing sectors of Argentina's economy. | NA One year on from Argentina’s strict Covid-19 lockdown, a second wave of infections looms on the horizon, this time accompanied by the circulation of new, more contagious strains of the virus and a slow vaccination rate. The cocktail threatens to impact on the economic recovery, yet Productive Development Minister Matías Kulfas has declared that “it will not be necessary to resort to closures like last year." He says industry has "learned to produce" while complying with health protocols. Experts, for now, tend to agree. Those consulted by Perfil believe that a strict quarantine, as witnessed in 2020, is "unlikely" due to Argentina’s fierce socioeconomic deterioration: last year ended with a poverty rate of 42 percent, with unemployment at 11 percent, and an economic contraction of 9.9 percent of gross domestic product.