Lucas Torreira’s mother has sadly passed away after being admitted to intensive care with Covid-19.

Lucas Torreira returned to his hometown of Frey Bentos last week as the condition of his mother worsened and she was admitted to intensive care, suffering from Covid-19.

Sport in Spain reported that Torreira was given special permission by Atletico Madrid to travel home. He had already contracted Covid himself in November when he was forced to miss three games after an outbreak in his national team.

Sadly, it seems his mother has passed away:

https://twitter.com/UruguayHeroes/status/1376872504489299969

Torreira’s mother, Viviana Di Pascua, was only 53.

Unlike the UK, Uruguay had dealt well with the pandemic, overall. Over 125,000 people have died in the UK but the South American country has seen only 928 fatalities and just 99,584 cases (4.33m in the UK). As a percentage of cases, that’s 0.94% vs 2.92%.

However, the number of cases in Uruguay are now rising rapidly with new infections doubling in the last week. Just six weeks ago, the seven day average rate for new cases was 500. Today it is over 2,193.