Bolivia breaks daily record for COVID-19 cases for the second day and denies omicron presence

Bolivia for the second day in a row broke his daily record of infections of COVID-19, with 6,149 new cases reported this Wednesday, amid a fourth wave that hits the country.

The latest report from the Ministry of Health released tonight also shows 28 deaths that brought the total number of deaths to 19,650, while the accumulated infections reached 591,773 since March 2020.

The daily record of 3,839 positive cases registered in the third wave was last June was broken the day before, when 4,934 new infections were reached, a figure exceeded again on this day.

Santa Cruz, the largest region and the one hardest hit by the pandemic, reported the most new infections, with 4,376, followed by the Cochabamba plant with 505 and La Paz with 416, according to the report.

The southern region of Tarija registered 371 new positives and its neighbor Chuquisaca had 246, while in the other four departments the figures ranged between 46 and 77, the report indicates.

Currently active cases are 47,150 and the accumulated number of recovered patients is 524,973, it adds.

The fatality rate in this fourth wave, which began in October, is 0.9%, according to health authorities.

Regarding vaccination against COVID-19, the national report details that so far 4,582,835 people over 18 years of age have received the first dose of vaccines against COVID-19, another 3,583,655 the second and 983,511 were immunized with single dose drugs.

In addition, 532,873 people over 18 years of age and people with underlying diseases have received third doses of vaccines as a booster.

According to the report, 510,331 adolescents from 12 to 17 years old received first doses and 311,611 the second, while 195,926 children from 5 to 11 years old have been immunized with first doses.

Immunization began in Bolivia at the end of January in stages to include, starting this month, minors between the ages of 5 and 11, with an estimated “vaccinable” population of about 10.2 million people.

The fourth wave of the pandemic that affects the country has left days with more than a thousand cases a day since November.

The requirement of the vaccination card to enter crowded places that will govern from this January 1 motivated long lines to form at the immunization points in Bolivian cities, in several of which the municipal authorities decided to suspend the end-of-season festivities. anus.

In Santa Cruz, whose health authorities warned that the “worst epidemiological storm” is underway, people go en masse for tests to confirm or rule out a possible contagion.

The national government has assured that the omicron variant has not yet been detected in the country and that due to the suspicions of cases with this or another of the new variations, permanent epidemiological surveillance is being carried out.