Bolivia Verifies: Jhonny Fernández gave false information on the number of diagnostic points prior to his administration

Marcelo White / Bolivia Verifies

The mayor of the city of Santa Cruz, Jhonny Fernández, declared that before his administration there were only four points in that municipality to be tested for the Sars-Cov-2 virus, highlighting that we now have 37. When making a review of these data, it was possible to reach the conclusion that this speech is false.

In the program Subjects Centrals on January 10, the mayor of Santa Cruz was invited to speak on various topics related to his health and the work of the mayor’s office during the coronavirus wave.

On the issue of management in the pandemic, the mayor said the following: “When I became mayor, there were only four diagnostic points (of Covid-19), today we have 37 diagnostic points in all the neighborhoods of Santa Cruz. ”

This phrase can be heard at minute 49:02 of the transmission of the aforementioned program that is transmitted through Facebook.

It must be taken into account that Jhonny Fernández was officially inaugurated as mayor on May 3, 2021.

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The official accounts of the Mayor’s Office of Santa Cruz, the former interim mayor Angélica Sosa and the media were reviewed and it was evidenced that the aforementioned data is false.

On the page of the Municipal Autonomous Government of Santa Cruz a note was published on January 11, 2021 informing about the plan called “All for Life” that presents 11 municipal centers of health professionals authorized to carry out free Covid-19 detection tests.

The same portal of the Municipal Government published similar information on January 20, 2021. The headline was as follows: “Free nasal antigen and PCR tests in 11 municipal health centers.”

In addition, the Vice Ministry of Communication of the National Government published a note in which he referred to these 11 health centers, where people could be tested for Covid-19 for free.

Bolivia Verifica contacted all these health centers. In five of these points they confirmed that tests were carried out to detect Covid-19 in the past administration. In the other health centers we did not receive an official response.

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The Duty published on January 21, 2021 a note where it reported that Santa Cruz had 20 centers for taking tests to detect Covid-19. The Santa Cruz newspaper reported that the data was provided by the Departmental Health Service (Headquarters) and specified that many of these points were in first-level hospitals, that is, run by the mayor’s office.

Former mayor Angélica Sosa, published in February 2021 on her official Facebook account, videos where she reported on another test point to detect the virus. This point was that of the Parque Lineal Mutualista, popularly known as Cambódromo.

Therefore, it is evidenced by various sources that in the management prior to Jhonny’s Fernandez had more than four diagnostic test taking points for Covid-19.

Management of Jhonny Fernández

The official website of the Mayor’s Office de Santa Cruz published on December 27, 2021 a list of Covid-19 detection points. In this list there is a total of 35 points.

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The same account published on January 10, 2022 the mass and district points where people can go for these tests. In this list there were a total of twelve points.

The Santa Cruz Mayor’s Office published another list on January 11, this time, with the names of the centers of health where you can go to get screened. In total there are 19. Adding the amount that appears in these two publications, the detection points become 31.

As part of our discourse methodology , we contacted via call and message to Mayor Jhonny Fernández’s cell phone, in order to have his discharge for the false data, but until the publication of this note there was no response.