Bolivian health minister tests positive as virus hits cabinet

Bolivian Health Minister Eidy Roca has tested positive for COVID-19, becoming the third member of the cabinet to be infected in four days, interim President Jeanine Anez said on Sunday.

Anez expressed her support for Roca on Twitter as the country's rapidly worsening outbreak rose to 38,071 cases and 1,378 deaths.

The minister of the presidency, Yerko Nunez, has been hospitalized with a fever due to "complications from COVID-19," according to officials.

On Saturday, it was also reported that Mining Minister Jorge Fernando Oropeza had tested positive.

Roca's health is stable and she is "strictly complying with the safety protocol that includes isolation, medication and care," said a statement from her office.

Anez has been largely confined to the presidential residence from where she holds internet meetings.

"Most of the time she works from there and only comes (to the government palace) when her physical presence is necessary," deputy communication minister Isabel Fernandez said on Saturday.

Since the pandemic began in March, several Bolivian ministers have completed 14-day quarantines due to suspected coronavirus cases in their family or close associates.

Source: AFP