The national director of epidemiology, Freddy Armijo, urged the population to protect themselves against the disease with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus vaccine, which the government is making available to them in all health facilities in the country.
In statements to the press, the health worker regretted that vaccination coverage in Bolivia is still low, reminding that the vaccine protects against the disease and, in the event of infection, relieves symptoms and avoids complications.
Regarding this issue, the director of the Cochabamba Departmental Health Service, Freddy Medrano, agreed with Armijo that due to the trade movement, celebrations and increase in social contacts at this time, the pandemic peak of this wave is registered in the first seven days in January.
He recalled that in this area for two weeks the growth of cases has been exponential, “they are doubling” and “the population must take all the precautions to protect themselves”.
Medrano urged Cochabambinos to be aware of and comply with the vaccination schedule to achieve at least 74 percent anti-Covid-19 coverage.
The head of the Cercado Health Network, Tarija department, Wilson Muriel, reported that the number of infected rose from 27 to 87 in the last week and the number of suspects from 125 to 255.
Muriel considered vaccination coverage among Tarija residents to be low and urged them to complete the vaccination schedule.
“We’re on the third dose, which is 36 percent, and from the fourth (…) we don’t go beyond 11 percent,” he lamented.
The epidemiologist from Tarija insisted that at the slightest symptom of the disease, Bolivians go to health facilities that have already activated the emergency plan against Covid-19.
The day before, the minister of this sector, Jeyson Auza, reported that the new cases of Covid-19 in the country recorded a 119 percent increase in the last seven days, despite the biosecurity measures applied reducing the mortality rate to 0. . 1 percentage point.
“There are 13,289 cases, if we compare to the previous week it’s 7,210 (…), that’s an increase of 119 percent, slightly reducing the growth acceleration that we had in the previous week, which exceeded 200 percent,” Auza said.
The minister insisted that a low mortality rate of 0.1 percent be reported, which he sees as a “very important” result that should be made known to the Bolivian people.
lam/jpm