ASSOCIATED PRESS
A plastic-wrapped coffin containing the remains of Cristóbal Huanca Mendoza is guided by staff through a cemetery to a mass grave in Cochabamba, Bolivia, on July 2. 3,016 bodies of others were recovered in imaginable instances of COVID-19.
LA PAZ, Bolivia – Police in Bolivia’s major cities have recovered the cargo bodies of suspected coronavirus sufferers from homes, automobiles and, in some cases, on the streets. Hospitals are full of COVID-19 patients and are understaffed, keep their doors closed, and there are symptoms that say, “There’s no room.”
And the Bolivian government says the peak of the epidemic is expected until August.
Despair is unfolding in one of Latin America’s poorest countries, which is defeated by the virus despite the political turmoil resulting from an imperfect election and the removal of President Evo Morales last year. A plan to hold elections in September, noted as a key detail to stabilize its democracy, is being questioned as the pandemic worsens.
Some funeral homes have hired more staff to attend to the influx of dead, and the hearse of the main cemetery of the capital of La Paz are queuing to deliver the bodies. With little area available, the mayor’s workplace only allows burials for the population of the municipality and charges more than $100 per cremation, a massive sum for Bolivians maximums. A personal cremation service costs twice as much.
“My brother died of pneumonia and we can’t locate a funeral home. We have to wait till tomorrow. Many other people are going through the same thing and no one is assisting us,” Herminia Carpio said, sobbing as he waited. recover his brother’s frame at the door of La Paz’s largest public hospital.
Some doctors factored out the certificate of death for virus sufferers, endangering funeral staff, according to a contractor at the funeral home in La Paz who spoke under anonymity due to the sensitivity of the factor.
A death through COVID-19 in Bolivia requires strict protection protocols to manage the body, expanding the value of funerals. There are allegations that some relatives paid doctors to list an unrelated cause of death. In all cases, medical facilities are overworked and possibly would not have the time or ability to assess the cause of death.
More shocking news came this week when police said they recovered 420 bodies in places in La Paz and Bolivia’s largest city, Santa Cruz, in the five-day area. It is idea that between 80% and 90% of them had the virus.
“The pandemic has crisisd the state’s reaction,” said sociologist Renzo Abrezeze.
The political consequences of the pandemic are intensifying. A committee advising the Ministry of Health on measures to involve the epidemic said in a letter to Bolivia’s most sensible election official this week that it would be desirable to hold the vote as planned.
Most researchers agree that “to plan activities as an election, we will have to wait until the epidemiological curve of the active bodies has a sustained minimum for an era of 14 days, so the date of September 6 is not appropriate,” the committee, basically composed of doctors, wrote to Salvador Romero, president of the Supreme Electoral Court.
The committee has stated in the past that many others who contract COVID-19 do not report their illness for fear of stigmatization. Many other people in rural areas are not in the virus lifestyle, while non-compliance with social estrangement regulations in cities makes things worse, according to the committee.
Some Bolivians have resorted to fake remedies, adding a poisonous bleach that other people line up to buy in the city of Cochabamba. Like many other countries, the Andean country instituted restrictions to curb the spread of the virus, but began eliminating them on 1 June to relieve economic pressure on the population of more than 11 million.
Bolivia reported that about 2,300 deaths showed due to COVID-19, the actual number appears to be higher. César Salinas, president of the Bolivian football federation, was among the dead. The acting president, Jeanine Ez, tested positive and says she is recovering in quarantine.
The electoral tribunal, which has not yet ruled on the letter recommending the postponement of the vote, will have the date with the approval of the congress, recently governed through the Movement for Socialism party. The organization was led by Evo Morales, who was forced to resign as president last year after protests and clashes following an election that, according to foreign observers, was marred by irregularities.
The Movement for Socialism party, which has nominated former Economy Minister Luis Arce as its presidential candidate, needs elections to go a long way. His supporters have warned that they oppose street protests if elections are postponed, and Arce has argued that the passage of the government is the pandemic as a “pretext to expand.”
Six of the 8 parties in Bolivia’s election contest said they were in favor of a postponement.
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