LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivia’s vice president and six cabinet ministers have tested positive for the coronavirus and are in isolation, the government said Tuesday.
The infection for Vice President David Choquehuanca came a week after he had received his first dose of an anti-COVID-19 vaccine. He had been widely criticized for waiting so long to get a shot.
The Ministry of the President said others testing positive were ministers of the interior, Eduardo del Castillo; defense, Edmundo Novillo; foreign relations, Rogelio Mayta; education, Edgar Pari; justice, Iván Lima, and planning, Gabriela Mendoza.
As in much of Latin America, confirmed COVID-19 cases have been rising sharply in Bolivia. Officials reported 3,550 new cases on Jan. 1 and 11,190 a week later.
That has prompted officials to cancel mass gatherings in the country of 11.6 million people.
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