Increase in Covid-19 cases in La Paz affects merchants

The month of March began and the cases of Covid-19 grew in the municipality of La Paz, in the second week, there was an increase of 80 incidents with a total of 234 positives. Although in this panorama there were no deaths and the epidemiological conditions are not the same as last year, the fact that there are still more cases affects the entire economic sphere of the city.

Above all, it hurts small businesses that have limited resources. The merchant Sanjuana Galvan and the public carrier Edwin Martínez commented that the festivities that recently took place meant that more infections were to be expected. The merchant and the young public transport driver explained how it affects their income.

“Ever since I found out about the carnival, I said after the Carnival it will be an invasion, it hurts us because of the sale […] In the way that health comes and they don’t want to see people eating here, purely to take away, so today, after the strong pandemic, people have gotten used to taking cambritos and ordering to go, but we had no sales.

“The lack of a mask, that there are many people who do not use it, I work in public transport, because there are many people who get on without a mask, I think maybe because of that. […] It would affect us more than anything due to the fact that they reduce the passage that we have to reach a certain limit and then, yes, it affects us.”

The vendor Carla said that since the majority of the population has already received the dosepeople trust to walk without the mouth covers.

“A little bit, people stopped believing in that, I think that’s why and it was how I imagine that people, well, began to get infected again, because they took off their face masks and walked freely, I imagine that because of that must be true […] I say that this also has a lot to do with all the big meetings, they have a lot to do, you know what I mean.”

Unlike the rest of the interviewees, a young man expressed that for him the pandemic has not been a problemand that the measure of healthy distance is no longer respected and it already depends on how each one takes care of themselves so as not to be part of those infected.

“I think that everything is mental, I go without a mask, if when I have to enter the store, I do put it on, so I walk with it all the time, no. Perhaps they are already symptoms of each one, that is, each one is suggested. That’s a flu. People already take it as if it were actually Covid.”