Bolivia exceeds 10,000 daily coronavirus infections for the first time

Bolivia This Wednesday he again beat his daily record of coronavirus infections covid-19 by exceeding 10,000 new cases of the disease for the first time, most in the eastern region of Santa Cruz, the largest and most affected by the pandemic in the country that goes through a fourth wave. The report released by the Ministry of Health details that 10,263 new cases and 38 deaths were registered on this day, which brought infections to 641,817 and accumulated deaths to 19,848 since March 2020, when the disease was detected for the first time in Bolivian territory.

Santa Cruz reported 6,286 new infections, the highest figure in that region in the pandemic, followed by Cochabamba, which registered 1,322, Tarija with 747 and Chuquisaca with 669, while in the other five regions, the figures varied between 36 and 497, the report indicates. .

Currently active cases are 84,492 and the accumulated number of recovered patients is 537,477, it adds. According to health authorities, the fatality rate in this fourth wave is 0.7%.

The report also details that so far 4,946,230 people have received the first dose of anticovid vaccines, another 3,718,527 the second and 992,616 were immunized with single-dose drugs.

In addition, 596,010 people over 18 years of age and people with underlying diseases have received third doses of vaccines as a booster.

According to the report, 553,046 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years received first doses and 341,528 completed the vaccination schedule, while 280,207 children aged 5 to 11 years have been immunized with first doses and 22,050 with second.

Immunization began in Bolivia at the end of January 2020 in stages until including from December to children between 5 and 11 years of age, with a “vaccinable” population estimated at about 10.2 million people out of about 11 and a half million inhabitants. that the country has.

The contagions began to skyrocket in the last weeks of 2021, before which the Bolivian Executive declared a health emergency and several subnational governments suspended the New Year holidays.

The requirement from this week for the vaccination card or a negative PCR test to enter public places or travel has made people go en masse to be immunized in recent days.

Santa Cruz had a positivity rate higher than 50% on this day, warned the manager of Epidemiology of the Departmental Health Service (Headquarters) of Santa Cruz, Carlos Hurtado, who also specified that in the first five days of the year that region reported some 21,000 cases .

Since this Wednesday, medical brigades have made house-to-house tours to detect new cases in Santa Cruz, while the National Immunization Committee recommended to go to get vaccinated against covid-19, especially to children when an increase in hospitalizations of minors is reported for that illness.

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