Coronavirus: in Bolivia, the city of La Paz completely "encapsulated"

Text by: RFI Follow

The city of La Paz in Bolivia, which after having been partially deconfigured returns to a stricter quarantine in the face of the increase in the number of cases of coronavirus. The country now has more than 21,000 cases. From this Saturday and for three days the whole department of La Paz will be "encapsulated", that is to say completely stopped.

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with our correspondent in La Paz, Alice Campaignolle

It is total silence. La Paz is even quieter than during quarantine. Because in Bolivia, the level above confinement is "encapsulation", that is the word we use. The city is stopped, total. No movement, no transport, no one on the street. Three days of isolation with a ban on leaving in the face of the increase in the number of cases of coronavirus in the administrative capital of the country.

This situation has already been experienced by the towns of Montero, which was the first home for COVID in the country, but also Oruro and Potosi.

Traders prepared for it, like Patricia Ramos. "  I try to sell everything I have, my fruits and my vegetables, because otherwise in three days, everything will rot!  " 

A proven measure because in the cities where it was implemented, cases have dropped drastically.

But is three days of total shutdown enough to make a difference? This is what passers-by wondered on Friday, while they were shopping. "  I think it is useless, the isolation should last longer, because the number of cases is really increasing  ," says a woman. 

The city of La Paz after being partially deconfigured for three weeks, with only a curfew in the evening, will return next Tuesday to a so-called dynamic quarantine, that is to say the possibility of going out every other day for the inhabitants , according to the last number on their identity card. 

Bolivia has more than 20,000 people officially contaminated with Covid-19 and nearly 700 dead. According to official figures published this week, La Paz has more than 1,200 people affected and around fifty deaths.

► Read also : Purchase of respirators in Bolivia: the Minister of Health arrested for corruption 

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• Bolivia
• Coronavirus

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