Bolivia forest gives ex-COVID patients fresh air

Former COVID patients are literally getting a breath of fresh air inside the Pura Pura forest on the outskirts of La Paz Tuesday as they walk what is being called the "oxygen path."

In Bolivia Eucalyptus leaves are used in countless home remedies to help open up constricted lungs with their mentholated aroma and that same sensation is what is attracting people who survived the virus to come here to breath in the forest air.

According to local guides the small forest found on 197 hectares (1.97 km) of land above the western portion of the city is home to some 400,000 Eucalyptus, Cypress and pine trees.

"My grandfather died of COVID and I had it as well but my symptoms were not as bad and I only lost my sense of smell," said Osmay Huayta a resident enjoying the fresh air.

The hillside forest came to be in 1930 when construction of the city railroad passed through and the engineers planted trees from other areas to stabilize the ground beneath the tracks.

Years later the train tracks are all that remain of the train but the trees that were planted are now the Pura Pura forest protected by the city government.

"One the principal objectives of the path of oxygenation is to invite all residents who have suffered the effects of COVID to come to breath in the clean air in the place, the lung of the city," explained Marcelo Lorberg, La Paz's Secretary of the Environment, walking among the trees.

To date Bolivia's Ministry of Health has registered 507,134 cases of COVID-19 and 18,877 persons have died because of the virus.

Although the number of COVID-19 daily cases has recently declined authorities here are anticipating a new wave in November and thus far 51 percent of the population has yet to been vaccinated.