Here is more on those two top politicians in Latin America testing positive for coronavirus:
Venezuela’s second-most powerful man and Bolivia’s interim president have both announced they have tested positive for Covid-19 – the latest top Latin American politicians to fall victim to a pandemic that has claimed more than 120,000 lives in the region.
Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s number two official, announced his diagnosis on social media on Thursday evening and said he was in self-isolation.
“We will prevail!!” the highly-influential Chavista tweeted.
Jeanine Añez, Bolivia’s right-wing interim leader, said she had received the same diagnosis.
“I’ve tested positive for Covid-19,” tweetedAñez, who took power after Evo Morales was forced from the country last year. “I’m OK, I will work in isolation. Together, we will get through this.”
The news comes after Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, announced on Tuesday that he had tested positive for coronavirus.
Cabello’s announcement came amid growing concern over Covid-19’s advance in Venezuela and the potential for its already collapsed health service to be overwhelmed by the pandemic.
Venezuela’s official Covid-19 figures – which many question – have so far been far lower than those of other countries in the region. While Brazil has recorded more than 68,000 deaths,Venezuelahas officially suffered just 75.
Venezuela has registered 8,010 confirmed cases while in Brazil there have been at least 1.7 million.
But on Wednesday, Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, warned the South American country was now witnessing the “real outbreak”.
Another top Chavista official, the governor of the western state of Zulia, also confirmed he had tested positive on Thursday night. “We are in battle and stable,” Omar Prieto tweeted.
Bolivia has so far recorded 1,577 Covid-19 deaths and nearly 43,000 cases.
