Guatemala has declared a new state of emergency and will impose an overnight curfew from Sunday to contain a surge in Covid infections due to the Delta variant, President Alejandro Giammattei said.

The 30-day state of emergency is being implemented due to a rebound in cases attributed to the “more aggressive” Delta variant, Giammattei said in a televised address.

“The Delta variant is highly contagious. It is causing new outbreaks and many governments have had to impose new restrictions on their populations as a mitigation measure. Guatemala cannot be the exception,” he said.

Guatemala, with about 17 million inhabitants, has been recording more than 4,000 new infections a day, with 407,564 cases and 11,006 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to AFP.