BUENOS AIRES, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Argentine President Alberto Fernandez on Thursday said he was "very concerned" about the exponential rise in novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infections around the country, and pledged to firmly enforce social distancing measures in place since March.

"We have a problem and we can't let this problem keep going by leaving things as it is. If by doing that, it (the outbreak) has gotten bigger, then we have to think of something else," Fernandez said in a radio interview in Buenos Aires.

Argentina's current lockdown phase is set to expire on Sunday, but Fernandez declined to say whether measures would be relaxed under the circumstances.

"I am very concerned about the situation. We have made a great effort, we have done relatively well, in the sense that we don't have more victims to grieve, but we have to be a little more firm because this isn't working, frankly," said the president.

While his aides reported that fewer cases were registered on Wednesday than the previous week, the number of new infections was only lower by 300 cases, said Fernandez.

Carla Vizzotti, the Health Ministry's health access secretary, told reporters earlier in the day that COVID-19 outbreaks were registered in several parts of the country.

A significant number of provinces had outbreaks with an important number of cases that were being investigated, and they had yet to find the source, which led to the speculation of community transmission, said Vizzotti.

Since detecting its first COVID-19 case on March 3, Argentina has reported 178,996 cases, of which 80,596 have recovered, and 3,311 deaths. Enditem

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