Bolivia hospital allows visits to COVID-19 ICU

A COVID-19 intensive care unit in the Bolivian capital La Paz has chosen to allow relatives into the rooms where patients lie in critical condition.

The approach is contrary to what many hospitals and health authorities have recommended to avoid spreading the coronavirus and the more contagious variants.

Alejandro Enriquez Vidal, ICU director at La Paz Hospital "Clinicas," said the decision to integrate relatives is based on delivering "humanized therapy."

Nora Choque, one of the relatives of a COVID-19 patient who was able to visit the ICU unit on Saturday, said she was grateful to doctors for allowing her to see her dear one.

Hospital "Clinicas" is the oldest and largest in La Paz. Still, it has only 15 ICU beds equipped to tend to COVID-19 patients of an estimated total of 500 across Bolivia.

Bolivia has reported more than 431-thousand COVID-19 cases since 2020 and a total of 16,496 related deaths.