The increase in COVID-19 infections on the border between Bolivia and Brazil keeps the health authorities on alert due to the suspicion that the variant circulating in that country has reached the Andean nation.
The extensive border with Brazil is neighboring with the Bolivian regions of Pando, Beni and Santa Cruz.
“As a preventive measure, the Brazilians who enter the country will be isolated for five days,” María Bolivia Rothe, director of Epidemiology of the Ministry of Health, told Unitel television on Friday.
The Minister of Health, Jeyson Auza, expressed his concern and recommended that the classes still not be face-to-face. Bolivia began classes in February virtually in most of the country. However, in several rural towns they decided to send their children to classrooms.
Bolivia reported a decline in cases after an outbreak in late December last year.
However, in recent days the Beni region – which was in fifth place among infections – rose to second, while the Santa Cruz region continues to be the hardest hit.
Pando, another region neighboring Brazil, even held a workshop with Brazilian authorities to learn from their experiences of the variant that is affected in that country, explained the governor of the department of Pando, Paola Terrazas.
The Ministry of Health reinforced the regions of Beni and Pando with 340 doctors.
Recently a couple who had attended a wedding in a Brazilian town died in Bolivian territory. Suspecting they were infected, the Health Ministry sent samples to Brazilian laboratories, Auza reported Monday.
In Bolivia so far, 267,833 cases and 12,131 deaths have been reported, according to the latest report from the Ministry of Health.
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