La Paz, the seat of government of Bolivia, will resume restrictive measures from Thursday to prevent the new coronavirus from spreading in a regrowth that has already exceeded the first wave in deaths and infections per day.
Meanwhile in Santa Cruz, the region hardest hit by the disease, doctors gave local authorities 48 hours to declare a total quarantine for two weeks.
The government of President Luis Arce has ruled out a quarantine to boost the economy that was hit by the effects of the pandemic in 2020, for which the authorities in each region are taking different precautionary measures.
The secretary for Economic Development of the La Paz mayor’s office, Sergio Siles, explained at a press conference that the objective is to reduce crowds.
From Thursday the entrance to banks, markets and supermarkets will be according to the completion of the identity document of each person. It also suspends the operation of sports fields and event rooms.
In the case of public transport, circulation will be allowed according to the license plates of each car. The leaders of the drivers of this service advanced their rejection. “We live from day to day, if one day we do not work we do not eat that simple” said Mario Silva,
In parallel, Fernando Romero, leader of the Union of Medical Branches in Health (Sirmes), said that it is a good measure because the “disease is spreading much faster.” “These restrictions are important and we hope they help reduce infections,” he added.
In Santa Cruz, some 420 kilometers east of La Paz, the mayor of that city, Angélica Sosa, ruled out a rigid quarantine despite the 48-hour period that the doctors gave her. He assured that it would be “very complicated logistics to guarantee that the population does not take to the streets.”
The precarious situation of the hospitals has not changed and the doctors assure that several intensive care units are saturated.
“The doctors, nurses and medical personnel are already tired, the hospitals are full,” the departmental leader of the doctors in Santa Cruz, Kadidja Ovando, told the media.
From the government, the Health Ministry is promoting massive tests to better track the disease while announcing that the first batch of 6,000 Sputnik V vaccines is expected after the Arce government finalized the purchase of 5.2 million doses. In addition, the country is expected to receive another five million vaccines in March, developed by the AstraZeneca laboratory and the University of Oxford.
Bolivia also hopes that that same month the free vaccines will arrive under the COVAX system, promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO), which seeks to promote equitable access to inoculations.
Meanwhile, the political campaigns of candidates for mayors and governorships continue towards elections on March 7. At least six applicants have died this month.
The Ministry of Health reported the day before that a record in deaths was broken, with 66 deaths from COVID-19 in one day and 1,781 cases were reported. Bolivia has a cumulative 202,818 infections and 10,051 deaths.
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