Bolivia reported this Sunday an 80% increase in cases of the covid-19 compared to the last week of 2023, and which is part of the “outbreak” which began at the end of December.
The Minister of Health, María Renée Castro, pointed out that according to information “preliminary” 3,473 cases of the disease were recorded, which is 1,540 more than those reported in the last week of 2023.
The highest number of these infections is in the department of Santa Cruz, the most populated and extensive in the country, with 2,497, while in the other eight Bolivian regions the cases varied between increases and decreases.
Castro explained that this behavior of the disease is “normal” since covid-19 has become a disease “endemic” and that the decline of this outbreak will occur in February.
He also indicated that in these days two deaths were recorded, one in Santa Cruz and the other in La Paz, that of a former vice minister of Education who had “an underlying illness.”
The minister indicated that for the start of the school year, scheduled for the first week of February, the ‘Safety Protocol for returning to classes’ and recommended that students use face masks in addition to each school having alcohol available for disinfection.
Likewise, Castro mentioned that the public health system has vaccines against covid-19 available for application to people over 5 years of age, which includes a batch of pediatric immunizers.
A few days ago, the Ministry of Health confirmed an “outbreak” of covid-19 and identified a case of the JN.1 subvariant in the east of the country.
From 2021, when vaccination began until now, more than 16 million doses have been used, among a vaccine-age population of more than 10.2 million.
Bolivia declared the end of the coronavirus health emergency in August last year and with it the lifting of several health restrictions.
The country faced six waves of the Covid-19 pandemic since March 2020, when the first case of the disease was recorded.
Source: Gestion
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