RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Bolivian President Luis Arce on Saturday, January 16th, appointed Jeyson Auza Pinto as the new minister of health and sports, replacing Edgar Pozo, who left office after testing positive for the novel coronavirus.
The president lauded Pozo’s decision to step aside during his recovery. Pozo is the fourth member of Arce’s cabinet to become infected with the disease.
Bolivia has reported 183,589 cases of COVID-19, with a record number of more than 2,000 cases reported daily.
“We are at the beginning of the hardest stage in the history of Bolivian health. The outlook for the world is perhaps not encouraging, but in our country, there is a light at the end of the tunnel,” said Auza, referring to the vaccines against the virus.
The Ministry of Health’s Early Warning Index (IAT) reported on Friday that the capital cities of the nine departments of Bolivia have registered increasingly high levels of COVID-19 cases, with several cities facing an “overflow” of infections.