Introduction
My city is arriving in two more days to a span of three months locked down, I have been doing home-office since the first week, going out just one day a week to buy groceries.
The police and the army were in control of streets the first weeks, after that there were only control on some strategic places.
Lock-down rules
The rules in Bolivia were:
- Citizens were allowed to go out only one day a week, according to the ending number of our ID card
- No cars were allowed on the street, with the exception of:
- Police
- Army
- Delivery companies
- Food supply chain
- Medical staff
- No public transportation was allowed
- All flights were canceled, both domestic and international
santa-cruz-bolivia-cuarentena-corona-virus-1
Open businesses
Supermarkets
Supermarkets were of course open, one should go to the nearest one only, because you were allowed to move only walking. Because of mobility restrictions, businesses should pick employees from their houses, taking all biosecurity measures
Mobile Markets
Mobile markets were organized by the mayor, visiting every neighborhood to sell mostly fruit and vegetables, in order to keep prices reasonable, a city hall employee was designed to stay with every one of those mobile markets.
mobile-market
Restaurants
Restaurants were only allowed to work with delivery services, and as much as I understand restaurant owners who want to work, I do not understand people who buy from them, instead of cooking at home. It is not safe enough for me to eat cooked food, as you do not know how the food was treated after cooked.
Medical and Health
Of course, hospitals and drug stores were open, but unless one have an emergency, it was not allowed to go to the drug store unless it was the allowed day to go out.
The result
According to the above, you could believe we have no people sick in Bolivia, yes we did it better that other countries, but not that good.
| Departament | Today | Accumulated | Deaths | recovered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beni | 147 | 3,473 | 171 | 54 |
| Chuquisaca | 11 | 196 | 14 | 16 |
| Cochabamba | 123 | 2,302 | 98 | 94 |
| La Paz | 83 | 1,469 | 54 | 332 |
| Oruro | 16 | 459 | 36 | 93 |
| Pando | 16 | 425 | 12 | 13 |
| Potosí | 15 | 407 | 10 | 35 |
| Santa Cruz | 551 | 13,539 | 313 | 4019 |
| Tarija | 15 | 206 | 7 | 14 |
I happen to live in Santa Cruz, the most hit city, it is also the biggest one. Another big city is La Paz, but it is located at 3.600 m. over the sea, and with a very dry weather, that seems to help.
The present and future
Some cities have started to implement loosen rules, and some are ready to harden them again, it seems that starting July the whole country will have to start working again, and start to go to a kind of normal situation. There are some activities that should remain prohibited according to me.
- Restaurants
- Sports events
- Malls
Specially because Bolivia is not a rich country and we are not ready to face this pandemic with more people sick, we are right now at our limit.
What I miss the most
I love to go jogging
endomondo
And since march I have been locked in my house, yesterday I went out for a little walk, and now my legs are hurting, so I will start jogging again, it is not only the exercise what I like, running is a great way to fight stress.
What I will miss
When all this situation is over, and we can go back to the “old normality” I will miss the time I spend with my family, specially with my children, I loved the time I have spent with them, I think I have spent more time with them in these months than in all previous years, specially with my 12 year old little boy.