Bolivia on the brink of health collapse due to …

Bolivia faces third wave of coronavirus with epicenter of infections in city of La Paz, where this Wednesday the authorities declared a state of emergency, due to the sustained increase in cases. In this context, they also announced that Next Friday, additional measures against the pandemic will be defined and they alerted that most hospitals are on the verge of collapse.

“The third wave is strengthening and will last until winter, at least until July, which could exceed the capacity of intensive care in hospitals,” said the head of epidemiology of the department of La Paz during of a press conference., Mayber Aparicio.

The announced emergency in the department where the national government is based added to similar statements that emerged last week in other regions, including Santa Cruz, the city with the highest number of infected and death.

Aparicio added that regional governor Santos Quispe called for a Ministerial Emergency Operations Committee meeting (COED) in which the mayors of La Paz and neighboring El Alto also participate to adopt a contagion containment plan and hospital strengthening.

The third wave of illness caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus reached its highest record yesterday, with 2,617 new cases, which rose to the total accumulated since the start of the pandemic in March of last year to 337,441. As, The death toll was also a record on Tuesday, with 69 dead, to make a total of 13,635, according to the latest official report released by the Bolivian Ministry of Health.

In most of the nine departments, the occupancy rate of intensive care units exceeds 90%, According to reports from regional health authorities, which warned against depletion of supplies of oxygen and essential drugs.

The national government, which attributes part of the rise in infections to a sharp increase in detection tests from a year earlier, has announced extraordinary plans for hospital supplies, including those under the supervision of regional executives.

Aparicio said hospital saturation could turn catastrophic in the coming weeks if the infection rate is not reduced, given the advent of typical winter illnesses, especially varieties of influenza, a type of viral flu. with a high mortality rate.

On another front in the fight against the plague, the government has decided to expand vaccination usually at least ten hours a day, including weekends. According to the Ministry of Health, To date, 1,194,572 vaccines have been applied, of which 902,833 were first doses.