Bolivia becomes 13th Latin American country to register coronavirus

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Mexico City, March 11, 2020 (dpa/NAN) Bolivia’s Health Minister on Wednesday confirmed the country’s first two cases of the coronavirus.

This takes to 13 the number of Latin American countries the potentially deadly illness has arrived in.

Bolivian Health Minister Anibal Cruz said in a press conference that the patients were two women aged 60 and 64 who had both recently travelled to Italy.

“They had been isolated in the cities of Oruro and Santa Cruz,’’ Cruz said.

The news came after the Health Ministry in Panama confirmed that eight people on its territory had tested positive for the virus, and that a 64-year-old who was already suffering with diabetes and pneumonia, had died.

It marked the second coronavirus death in Latin America, after Argentina confirmed it recently that one of its 17 coronavirus patients, a 64-year-old Buenos Aires resident, had died of the illness.

The virus has now reached the majority of Latin American countries: Brazil (34), Chile (17), Ecuador (15), Costa Rica (13), Peru (11), Colombia (9), Mexico (7), Dominican Republic (5), Paraguay (4), and Jamaica (1).

There are also no less than 10 cases in France’s overseas territories in Latin America: five in French Guyana, three in Martinique, two in St-Martin and one in St-Barthelemy.

All three islands are popular cruise ship stops.

According to the World Health Organisation, the virus, which began spreading in China in December 2019, has infected over 113,000 people. (dpa/NAN)

ACO/YEE

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Edited by Abiodun Oluleye/Emmanuel Yashim