Coronavirus

Evo Morales calls on Bolivia to close borders with Brazil

bolivia morales
Former Bolivian President Evo Morales. Photo: Harold Escalona/Shutterstock

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales said on Twitter that Bolivia should close its border with Brazil to stop the advance of the Amazon coronavirus variant, which has caused fears across South America.

Mr. Morales also asked the government to pay more attention to populations in border regions, who are more susceptible to pick up the Brazilian variant. This follows in the footsteps of the Uruguayan government, which placed an extra focus on vaccinating people on the Uruguay-Brazil border, offering immunization to Brazilians with Uruguayan

Bolivia is the latest in a list of South American nations to take measures against the spread of the Brazilian variant. Official statements from Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela have blamed the mutation for a local increase in cases, while the Bolivian department of Pando — bordering Brazil — sent coronavirus test samples to foreign labs to certify the prevalence of new variants.