Coronavirus: Nicaragua, hitherto in denial, begins to raise awareness

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Nicaragua is the only Central American country to date to have adopted neither containment measures nor closed borders or schools. Until this week, the authorities have even promoted demonstrations, festivals, sports meetings. But Tuesday, April 28, they still announced that the population was going to be encouraged to take preventive measures against the new coronavirus. Officially, the country has only 13 cases of contamination and three deaths.

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Disinfection in transport, usefulness of hand washing, social distancing: the Vice-President of Nicaragua, Rosario Murillo , promises that the government will increase communications to the general public. In fact, the population has already abandoned restaurants and shops for several weeks for fear of contagion.

Late measures, regrets the vice-president of the Nicaraguan medical unit. Francisco Javier Núñez accused the government of hiding the reality of the pandemic at the expense of frontline doctors: "  Until there are about 15 days, the doctors were not allowed to wear masks or gloves in hospitals so as not to worry the population. We are very concerned, because unofficially we know that 15 doctors are already infected with Covid-19. Our health system is extremely weak, I would even say one of the weakest in Latin America  . ”

For this doctor, it is urgent to protect caregivers to avoid the collapse of the health system. But at the same time, the government continues to minimize the impact of the pandemic in Nicaragua. He calls slander the projections of epidemiologists who fear an explosion of cases next month.

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• Nicaragua
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