LA PAZ, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- Bolivia expects to see the curve of its novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak plateau, or flatten, this month after registering over 130,000 cases of infection, head of epidemiology at the Ministry of Health, Virgilio Prieto, said on Sunday.
Following the uncontrolled increase in cases in the months of July and August, the South American country this month registered a decrease in the number of infections, he said.
Just over six months since the onset of the outbreak in Bolivia, the Ministry of Health on Sunday reported a recovery rate of 68.2 percent, in addition to a slowdown in the emergence of new infections, which indicates the curve of new cases could flatten at the end of September.
Meanwhile, several cities this weekend began to further relax lockdown measures by opening more public venues, such as cinemas, gyms, liquor stores, cafeterias and internet cafes.
Larger Bolivian cities such as Cochabamba (in the center of the country), La Paz (west) and Santa Cruz (east) have been gradually reactivating different sectors of the economy.
The Health Ministry on Saturday reported a total of 130,470 cases of COVID-19 and 7,586 deaths from the disease since the first confirmed case was detected on March 10. Enditem
