Authorities have recovered more than 400 bodies in Bolivia’s main cities in a five-day period as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to sweep across the country.
Authorities believe that 80 to 90 percent of the deceased, found between July 15 and 20, died after contracting the new disease.
Colonel Ivan Rojas, director of Bolivia’s special crime-fighting force, said his officers recovered 420 bodies from streets, vehicles and homes in the capital, La Paz, and in Bolivia’s largest city, Santa Cruz.
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The Bolivian Forensic Investigations Institute said that nationally, from April 1 to July 19, its workers had recovered 3,016 bodies of people in possible cases of coronavirus.
Andrés Flores, director of the agency, said that the department of Santa Cruz, which includes the city with that name, had the highest number of deaths, followed by Cochabamba.
A scientific committee advising the Bolivian government on Tuesday proposed that the presidential elections scheduled for September 6 be postponed due to the pandemic.
Bolivia is trying to resolve the political crisis that erupted last November when street protests over allegations of electoral fraud led President Evo Morales to resign after nearly 14 years in power.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Bolivia had reported 60,991 coronavirus cases and had recorded 2,218 deaths.
South America has been hard hit by the pandemic in recent weeks, and Brazil, Peru, Mexico and Chile have seen a large number of new infections and deaths.
Some Bolivians desperate to avoid or cure the disease are turning to chlorine dioxide.
In a strange turn of events, the Bolivian Senate recently passed a bill promoting the chemical as a treatment, despite the country’s Ministry of Health advising politicians not to do so.
Chlorine dioxide is a substance similar to bleach that the US Food and Drug Administration warned consumers that it can be health endangering and should not be bought or drunk as medical treatment.
But some people in Bolivia think that the substance could work in the battle against the virus.
“I heard on the news that they were selling chlorine dioxide at the pharmacy. Acquaintances of mine took it, one for prevention and one for cure. It is doing them good, ”Eric Ocanha told the Reuters news agency in front of a pharmacy.
Others said they were confused about the advice they had been given.
“As always, authorities say, ‘See your doctor.’ Which doctor The poor have no doctor, “said Dionisio Flores.
Elsewhere, Presidents Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro have claimed that hydroxychloroquine works as a treatment for the disease, without providing scientific evidence.
Additional agency reports
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