By NewsDesk  @bactiman63

On Christmas Eve, the Bolivia Ministry of Health and Sports reported 1,057 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the accumulated total to 153,121.

Of the 1,057 new cases, 474 confirmed cases were reported in Santa Cruz, in La Paz 334, in Chuquisaca 70, in Cochabamba 66, in Tarija 52, in Oruro 22, in Potosí 20, in Pando 11 and in Beni 8.

Of accumulative total, 129,387 patients have recovered from the disease, 14,658 are active cases and 9076 deaths have been recorded.

In addition, the Minister of Health and Sports, Edgar Pozo, reported Thursday that the Government plans to acquire vaccines against COVID-19 before March through bilateral agreements with laboratories in different countries, outside the Covax mechanism.

As for vaccines, “we are not only using the Covax mechanism, but also a form of acquisition through bilateral agreements between Bolivia and other countries,” he said at a press conference.

He explained that the vaccines that the Government manages through bilateral agreements, obviously you have to buy them, they are not donations, and it is expected to have them in the country until before March of the following year.

He indicated that Bolivians over 18 will receive the dose for free. In that sense, he pointed out that 20% of the population will be immunized through the Covax mechanism and the remaining 80% through the independent purchase of different laboratories.

It is planned to vaccinate 6% of the Bolivian population against COVID-19 in the first quarter of 2021. So far there have been talks with all the producing laboratories, including Pfizer, Moderna Astrazeneca / Oxford, Sinovac and Sputnik.