• Juan Pablo Escalera-Antezana, Nicolas Freddy Lizon-Ferrufino, Americo Maldonado-Alanoca, Gricel Alarcón-De-la-Vega, Lucia Elena Alvarado-Arnez, María Alejandra Balderrama-Saavedra, D Katterine Bonilla-Aldana, Alfonso J Rodríguez-Morales, and LANCOVID.
• National Responsible for Telehealth Program, Ministry of Health, La Paz, Bolivia; Universidad Privada Franz Tamayo/UNIFRANZ, Cochabamba, Bolivia.
• Travel Med Infect Dis. 2020 May 1; 35: 101653.

IntroductionIn March 2020, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) arrived in Bolivia. Here, we report the main clinical findings, and epidemiological features of the first series of cases, and a cluster, confirmed in Bolivia.MethodsFor this observational, retrospective and cross-sectional study, information was obtained from the Hospitals and the Ministry of Health for the cases that were laboratory-diagnosed and related, during March 2020. rRT-PCR was used for the detection of the RNA of SARS-CoV-2 following the protocol Charité, Berlin, Germany, from nasopharyngeal swabs.ResultsAmong 152 suspected cases investigated, 12 (7.9%) were confirmed with SARS-CoV-2 infected by rRT-PCR. The median age was 39 years (IQR 25-43), six of them male. Two cases proceed from Italy and three from Spain. Nine patients presented fever, and cough, five sore throat, and myalgia, among other symptoms. Only a 60 y-old woman with hypertension was hospitalized. None of the patients required ICU nor fatalities occurred in this group.ConclusionsThis is the first report of surveillance of COVID-19 in Bolivia, with patients managed mainly with home isolation. Preparedness for a significant epidemic, as is going on in other countries, and the deployment of response plans for it, in the country is now taking place to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the population.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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