The Ministry of Health of Bolivia has reported this Friday that it has managed to transfer around six tons of liquid medical oxygen destined for the hospitals of the cities of La Paz and El Alto, in the midst of protests and road blockades that have been affecting this region of the country for more than a month.
The Minister of Health, Marcela Flores Zambrana, explained in a statement that "this volume will make it possible to guarantee the supply of health establishments in the cities of La Paz and El Alto for the next five days, within the framework of the contingency actions implemented by the National Government to preserve the continuity of health services."
The shipment, which arrived via an air bridge activated in the early hours of Friday, will make possible "the continuity of care for patients requiring oxygen therapy support" and will help "reduce the risk of shortages while normal land distribution conditions are restored."
Flores Zambrana stressed that "liquid medical oxygen is considered a strategic and irreplaceable input for the care of patients in intensive care units, emergencies, operating rooms, neonatology, internal medicine, and other highly complex areas."
The Ministry added that it will continue to closely monitor the health situation to ensure the "availability of strategic inputs, medicines, and critical resources" with the aim of "protecting the care of the population and ensuring the uninterrupted functioning of health services."
This operation is part of the indefinite strike promoted by the Bolivian Workers' Confederation (COB), the country's main union, and the road blockades led in part by peasant and rural organizations.
Initially, the participants in the mobilizations demanded improvements in their living and working conditions, in a context of deep social and economic crisis affecting Bolivia in recent years, although as the days have passed, they have come to demand as a condition the resignation of the president, Rodrigo Paz.