LA PAZ/BRASILIA, Jan 7 (NNN-Xinhua) — BOLIVIA will extend a ban on flights from Europe until mid-February as a preventive measure against the spread of a new variant of the coronavirus disease, President Luis Arce announced.
“To protect the health of the Bolivian population … we are extending the suspension of entry of flights from Europe to Bolivia until Feb 15, 2021,” the president tweeted.
Over 40 countries have temporarily banned flights from the UK after the emergence of a new strain of the coronavirus that is more contagious.
Meanwhile, the government has authorized state-owned airline Boliviana de Aviacion to repatriate Bolivians stranded in Spain.
Almost 10 months after the first cases of COVID-19 were detected in Bolivia, the country has registered 165,268 cases of infection and 9,241 deaths from the disease.
Separately, BRAZIL registered 1,242 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the national death toll to 198,974, the Ministry of Health announced.
The country confirmed 63,430 new cases, taking the nationwide count to 7,873,830, it added.
The state of Sao Paulo, the most populous in the country, is also the most affected area, with 1,501,085 cases and 47,511 deaths in total, followed by Rio de Janeiro, with 448,089 cases and 26,068 deaths from the virus.
Brazil is currently seeing a second wave of COVID-19 outbreaks, with a significant increase in cases since December that has pushed the public healthcare system to the brink of collapse in several regions. — NNN-XINHUA
