Bolivia police find 400 dead in possible Covid-19 cases

Bolivian police have recovered more than 400 bodies from streets, vehicles, and homes over a five-day period, with 85 percent of the dead believed to have had coronavirus.

A total of 191 bodies were recovered in the Cochabamba metropolitan area alone from July 15-20, with another 141 collected in La Paz, national police director Coronel Ivan Rojas told journalists on Tuesday.

In the country's biggest city, Santa Cruz, authorities recovered 68 bodies.

The Santa Cruz metropolitan area is the worst affected by coronavirus in Bolivia and accounts for almost half of the country's more than 60,000 cases.

Some 85 percent of the bodies were "positive cases for Covid-19 and cases with Covid-19 symptoms, so they will be recorded as suspected cases," said Rojas.

The rest died of "other causes, meaning death from an illness or a violent cause," he added.

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Rapid surge in infections

According to the national epidemiological office, the western regions of Cochabamba and La Paz are experiencing a "very rapid increase" in coronavirus cases.

Andres Flores, director of the Forensic Investigations Institute, said that between April 1 and July 19 more than 3,000 bodies that were recovered outside of hospital settings had been identified as either confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases.

Earlier in the day, a scientific committee advising the Bolivian government proposed that the presidential election scheduled for September 6 be postponed because of the pandemic. 

Political crisis 

Bolivia is trying to resolve the political crisis that erupted last November when street protests over allegations of election fraud led President Evo Morales to resign after nearly 14 years in power.

Bolivia has recorded more than 2,200 confirmed coronavirus deaths among its 11 million population.