RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Bolivia recorded for the fourth consecutive week an increase in Covid-19 infections, according to figures from the Ministry of Health, which announced last Monday that the country would face a fourth wave of the pandemic.
The South American nation reported an average of 256.4 cases per day during the last week of September, which rose to 352.4 cases in the first week of October, 365.7 in the second, 390.3 in the third, and 466.4 in the fourth, according to official data.
Read also: Check out our coverage on Bolivia
“Given the increase in cases that are occurring and that announces the fourth wave, we are summoning all the [regional] governors and the departmental health services of the whole country” to hold “an important meeting”, said the Minister of Health, Jeyson Auza, at a press conference.
At this meeting, “An evaluation of the pandemic” will be made, economic resources will be provided, and “the guidelines that we will apply in this new stage of the pandemic” will be defined, he explained. Bolivia registered the first wave between July and August 2020, a second one between December 2020 and January 2021, and the third one between May and June.
With 11.5 million inhabitants, the country has accumulated more than 509,900 infected and more than 18,900 deaths due to COVID. 3.5 million people received the first dose of the vaccine, 2.8 million the second, and 161,260 a third.
In addition, 921,547 received a single dose of the Janssen vaccine. The country expects to complete the immunization of 7.5 million people over 16 years of age by the end of the year.
BREAKTHROUGH CASES
To think that it is a fourth wave in Bolivia is a possibility. But it is equally likely that the country, like others, is experiencing rising, so-called breakthrough cases. This means that fully vaccinated people become infected with the virus.
Despite Sweden’s mass vaccination campaign, the recent increase in infections has resulted in the highest number of Covid 19 cases among Swedish nursing home residents since February.
Recently released data from UK health authorities suggest a similar trend in the United Kingdom.
A UK Health Safety Agency (UKHSA) report released Oct. 7 found that most Covid-19 deaths in the United Kingdom in September were among the “fully vaccinated,” as were most hospitalizations.
The vaccination rate in the United Kingdom is almost as high as in Sweden.
Between September 6 and October 3, 70 percent of Covid-positive deaths occurred among fully vaccinated persons, according to UKHSA data, with 2,281 deaths among the “fully vaccinated” and only 611 among the unvaccinated within 28 days of a positive test. Partially vaccinated individuals accounted for 98 deaths.
Covid deaths among “fully vaccinated” Britons have increased dramatically since August, The Expose noted. Last month, Public Health England reported 600 coronavirus deaths in the unvaccinated population between Aug. 9 and Sept. 5 and 1,659 in the dually vaccinated population.
The latest UKSHA figures also show that vaccinated patients dominate Covid 19 hospitalizations. Between Sept. 6 and Oct. 3, 3,910 “fully vaccinated” people were hospitalized “for Covid,” compared with about 2,400 unvaccinated patients.
The fully or partially vaccinated together accounted for about 64% of all Covid-related hospitalizations.
The increase in Covid-19 deaths in the United Kingdom mirrors trends in other countries with high vaccination coverage, including the United States.
A September Department of Defense presentation found that about 60% of elderly Medicare patients hospitalized for Covid before Aug. 7 were “fully vaccinated.” Vermont, the state with the most vaccinations in the United States, reported that fully vaccinated individuals accounted for 76% of deaths from coronavirus in September.
In Maryland, where more than 85% of adults have received at least one dose of the Covid vaccine, about one-third of recent virus-related deaths involved “fully vaccinated” individuals.
“In the last six and eight weeks, more than 40% of the people who died in Maryland were fully vaccinated,” former CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, a top adviser to Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, said in an interview with Fox News this week.
According to public data released last week, other countries struggling with deadly Covid-19 breakthroughs include Australia, where 36 of the 49 nursing home residents who died from the virus during the Delta variant outbreak in New South Wales also had the double dose.