LA PAZ, March 11 (NNN-Xinhua) — Bolivia confirmed the country’s first two cases of COVID-19.
The patients are two women in the departments of Oruro and Santa Cruz, who came to Bolivia from Italy, Bolivian Health Minister Anibal Cruz told a press conference.
“They are two women who are 60 and 64 years old, respectively, whose history shows they were present in Italy, a country that currently has coronavirus transmission,” Cruz said.
Both patients are under strict quarantine, Cruz added.
COVID-19 cases continue to climb up in Latin America, with the region’s biggest country, BRAZIL, reporting Tuesday that its number of confirmed cases rose from 25 to 34.
Of the nine new cases, seven involved people who contracted the disease while traveling abroad and two were locally infected due to contact with previous patients, Brazilian health authorities said.
The authorities also said that there are 893 suspected cases, and 780 others tested negative and were discharged in the country.
In CHILE, its Health Ministry said four new patients were identified in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 17 in the country.
“We continue to be in Phase 2, that is when cases are imported or spread within the country by the imported cases,” the Health Ministry’s undersecretary of assistance networks, Arturo Zuniga, said at a press conference.
Chilean Health Minister Jaime Manalich said anyone arriving from Spain and Italy, the two European countries with high rates of infection, must remain in quarantine at home for up to two weeks to determine whether they have the virus or not.
COSTA RICA said its number of cases has reached 13 after four more cases were detected, including two kids and two adult males. The new cases are linked to a prior patient currently in the hospital.
In PERU, officials confirmed two new cases, raising the total to 11 in the country. Health Minister Elizabeth Hinostroza said the new patients are two brothers from the central Huanuco region who recently returned from a trip to Europe.
PARAGUAY’s Health Ministry reported its second confirmed case of the coronavirus: an elderly patient, 83, who recently arrived from Argentina.
Meanwhile, the ARGENTINE government announced it was earmarking 1.7 billion pesos (27 million U.S. dollars) to better combat the coronavirus, which has so far infected 17 people and led to one death in the country.
The money will be spent on upgrading laboratory and hospital equipment. — NNN-XINHUA
