RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Bolivia registered Thursday 3,233 new cases of covid-19, bringing the total number of infections to 400,047, in the midst of a third wave that has been more aggressive than the others and in expectation of the arrival of more doses of vaccines.
According to the Bolivian Ministry of Health report, 74 people died from the disease, and the total figure is 15,321, while the number of active cases is 69,422.
The department of Santa Cruz continues to lead with the highest number of daily infections with 1,013, followed by Cochabamba with 626 and La Paz with 626, the three regions that make up the so-called central axis of the country.
In Santa Cruz and Cochabamba, there are daily images of sick people and relatives begging for help due to the saturation of hospitals, the lack of medicines and medical oxygen. At the same time, cemetery administrators say they will no longer be able to receive bodies from other regions due to the increase in the number of deceased.
A meeting of the departmental emergency committee of La Paz is scheduled for this Friday, in which new measures will be defined to stop the spread of the disease.
According to the official report, in the other six regions, the cases are between 248 and 30.
Bolivia has been facing the third wave of the pandemic for a month, with daily reports of more than 3,000 cases and more than a hundred deaths.
The vaccination plan continues with some setbacks because some doses are becoming scarce. However, the Government assured that this weekend a batch of 100,000 Sputnik V vaccines would arrive, and on the 23rd, the country will receive one million doses of Sinopharm.
As of May, Bolivia has received more than 2.7 million doses, including 645,000 Russian Sputnik V vaccines, 1,689,000 Chinese Sinopharm, 228,000 from AstraZeneca-Oxford, and 193,056 Pfizer.
The ministry report also notes that 1,516,226 people have already received the first dose of the covid-19 vaccine, and 496,574 have already been immunized with the second dose since the vaccination was launched at the end of January and is expected to reach a population of 7.2 million over 18 years of age.