Bolivia announces seven-day border closure with Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “The border is closed for seven days, all the country’s borders with Brazil. It is a central level decision that we have been asking for 15 days”, said the manager of Epidemiology of Sedes de Santa Cruz, Carlos Hurtado, in a press conference.

He also pointed out that, although the authorities have already decided, the matter would be specified in a cabinet meeting scheduled for Wednesday, where the conditions and dates for the closing of the border would be defined.

“The cabinet is going to meet to define (from when the borders will be closed)”, said the health official.

The Municipal Emergency Operations Committee (COEM) of San Ignacio de Velazco and the Government of Santa Cruz called for a 15-day closure to prevent hospitals’ collapse as the Brazilian strain is more contagious and lethal than others already discovered.

Although interim secretary of the Santa Cruz Government, Marcelo Ríos, recently stated that neither the circulation of the strain nor infection cases in the department have yet been officially confirmed, the danger is latent.

Hurtado also updated the vaccination status in the last seven days, which has reached 5,000 people, and the goal is to stop the virus transmission chain. “We committed, as health authorities, that no one would be left unvaccinated. That is what we are doing in Puerto Quijarro, Puerto Suarez, Carmen Rivero Torrez and San Matias,” he stressed.

Source: Telesur