Bolivia: border prisons with Brazil isolated due to COVID-19

The prisons near Brazil were isolated to prevent infections due to suspicions that the variant of COVID-19 that circulates in that country has reached Bolivia, while the request of local authorities to close the borders increases, it was reported on Saturday.

In the three regions neighboring Brazil – Santa Cruz, Beni and Pando – infections of the new coronavirus have increased in recent days after the country was in a decline after an anticipated outbreak that began in December.

“It was instructed to encapsulate (isolate) the prisons and suspend visits and exits of inmates for hearings, to avoid the risk of contagion,” reported the Deputy Minister of the Interior, Emilio Rodas.

The authority explained that in the border town of Guayaramerin, one of the most populated cities in Beni, eight inmates with COVID-19 were reported, who were later isolated.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health is still waiting for the results of the samples that they sent to Brazilian laboratories earlier this week to verify if it is the variant that is registered in the bordering nation, one of the most affected by the virus in the world .

The Secretary of Health of the Government of Santa Cruz, Marcelo Ríos, and authorities of the towns near Brazil have requested the closure of borders.

At the request, the Minister of the Presidency, María Nela Prada, reported on Saturday that the epidemiological situation is being evaluated from the Health portfolio, mainly in Beni and Pando.

Meanwhile, the Andean country faced delays in the arrival of the main vaccine – the Russian Sputnik V – to continue with its immunization plan. Bolivia reports 268,711 infections and 12,143 deaths from COVID-19 so far, according to the latest report from the Ministry of Health.

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