Live
Audio Only
This Andean country's penitentiaries keep 18,000 inmates due to delays in judicial processes. Over 60 percent of them await sentencing.
Bolivia's Penitentiary System Director Juan Limpias Thursday announced the beginning of the vaccination program in prisons near the border with Brazil.
RELATED:
"Inmates are also vulnerable to contracting the disease. Therefore, we prioritized their vaccination," he said, adding that health workers have already immunized 67 prisoners of the Puerto Suarez Penitentiary, in Santa Cruz Department.
In the next few days, Bolivia plans to immunize another 380 prisoners at the Villa Busch prison, in the Amazonian city of Cobija.
"We will also immunize inmates from prisons subject to preventive epidemiological surveillance in the regions of Santa Cruz, La Paz, Cochabamba, Beni, and Pando," Limpias assured.
#Bolivia | Foreign Minister Rogelio Mayta launched an international campaign for the patent release of COVID-19 vaccines so that worldwide nations have equitable access to the drugs.https://t.co/i6wVR4FwVU
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) April 14, 2021
According to the official, Bolivia has prioritized inmates because the country's prisons are overcrowded.
"The 48 penitentiaries have about 18,000 inmates due to delays in judicial processes," Limpias said and informed that over 60 percent of Bolivian prisoners await sentencing.
Last December, 149 inmates got infected and two prisoners died during the second wave of COVID-19 that hit the country. Over 30 of those infected have not yet recovered from the disease.
Bolivia and Cuba reactivate pre-coup ties. pic.twitter.com/0uIxjm24pT
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) February 16, 2021
Newsletter
