A TV channel sparked controversy in Bolivia on Thursday after it broadcast live the final minutes of a COVID-19 patient's life while doctors tried desperately to save him.

The "No Lies" program said it took the decision to show a COVID-19 patient's death in a hospital in the eastern city of Santa Cruz to jolt into action authorities who had neglected the health services.

The program airs nightly on the Santa Cruz-based PAT channel, in a region with some 60 percent of Bolivia's 21,000 cases and around half its 679 deaths.

The program showed the patient's death over a 30-minute period as doctors tried to resuscitate the patient.

The country's ombudswoman, Nadia Cruz, slammed the broadcast for "sensationalism," saying it "repeatedly and morbidly " exhibited "images showing cardiopulmonary treatment being carried out on a person, which unfortunately ended in death."

The broadcast "evidently conflicts with the national legal order," Cruz said, adding that it "can generate a kind of collective fear."

Her office is an independent body appointed to investigate complaints against the government or public organizations.

Municipal workers disinfect the streets of La Paz as a preventive measure to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus
Municipal workers disinfect the streets of La Paz as a preventive measure to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus AFP / Aizar RALDES

The broadcast was widely criticized on social networks, including by prominent journalists.

"What a lack of respect for the family, for the deceased. We lost a lot of things with this virus, including empathy," said journalist Maria Trigo, from the newspaper El Deber de Santa Cruz, in a Twitter message.

Fabiola Chambi, a journalist with the Cochabamba daily Los Tiempos said broadcasting the death showed "a lack of respect and humanity."

The government has yet to comment on the controversy.

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