Nicolás Maduro confirmed on Sunday that Venezuela is facing a second wave of the covid-19 virus, mainly because of the Brazilian variant. “It is a reality that Brazil is the greatest threat in the world and affects all neighbors”, he pointed.
He also announced that Easter will be radically quarantined again this year.We are going to a two-week radical quarantine ”, He said. And it is that for a few days the reality in the neighboring country cannot be denied in view of the increase in the number of cases.
The Pérez family was looking for a place to hospitalize the 68-year-old aunt who contracted COVID-19 last Wednesday afternoon. Only at 7 p.m. they were given a place in one of the clinics in the southeast of the Venezuelan capital.
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Imperial College London estimates released last week, up to 3,500 people daily add to the uncertain local list of people infected with the virus. However, the Maduro regime, most of it reported up to last Saturday, were 1,160 new cases on that day.
In total, it has only recognized about 150,000 infections since the first case was announced, just over a year ago. An under-registration has since been reported, but now it has become clearer. Clinics and hospitals have reported total occupancy in recent days and, in some cases, exceeded capacity.
Concerns among Venezuelans about the increase in the number of cases are growing amid the uncertainty. “We have spent a year in which the official spokesperson or the person responsible for implementing health policy has never made the necessary arrangements”, in conversation with EL TIEMPO, criticized Jaime Lorenzo, Executive Director of Médicos Unidos de Venezuela (MUV).
At the start of the pandemic, this organization emphasized the “compromised” situation in which the country’s hospitals were found. A year later, they regret that the Maduro regime has not made the necessary purchases to handle the “continuous and efficient” supply of materials for the care of covid-19 and other diseases.
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The consequences are regrettable. According to official figures, about 1,500 people have died from this disease in Venezuela. Only in one municipality in the state of Táchira, bordering Colombia, the mayor recognized 849 deaths from COVID-19, representing more than half of the deaths recognized by the regimeThis without taking into account the fact that among the health personnel the deceased counted 369 people until last Friday, according to figures from MUV.
Brazilian kind?
In the first days of the month, Maduro confirmed the presence of the Brazilian species covid-19, for which he announced special preventive measures.The problem is trying to find an explanation for a situation that got out of hand “, Lorenzo hit. In his opinion, the regimen would not have a clear characterization of the disease as no adequate search would take place.
“Searching for cases is not asking questions, it is testing, and the test is the molecular test, the PCR, you would have to cover the Venezuelan population in a very high percentage to say how many patients you have symptomatic and asymptomatic and thus make socio-political or socio-economic decisions, ”said the executive director of MUV.
Since the arrival of the pandemic in this country, it has been reported that the evidence is insufficient. At the beginning of this month, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) reiterated, reporting that only 5 of the 24 Venezuelan states had direct access to the processing of PCR tests.
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More recently, however, lThe Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) saw an improvement in the network and organization of sample collection and shipment logistics in Venezuela, and reported a 600% increase in the use of this method since January of this year, to surpass 21,500 tests performed on March 15.
Dangerous cocktail
In June 2020, Venezuela began to implement a method called 7×7, a week of radicalization of the quarantine, followed by one of relaxation.
In December, however Maduro made quarantine more flexible during the month, which he repeated during Carnival week.
“We have been led to believe that the pandemic was under control and we have seen the regime irresponsibly promote an open carnival across the country, which is undoubtedly starting to translate into new outbreaks of contamination today,” warned the opposition Primero party. Justicia in the report. a statement from last Tuesday.
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“Since about October we have noticed, and in January it has become clearer, an internal migration of health personnel. They are not leaving the country, but are looking for other sources of income and therefore are withdrawing from the public health system, ”said Lorenzo, referring to poor wages and appalling working conditions.
The specialist adds a fourth ingredient to the mix: the way in which vaccination is carried out, without everyone knowing a plan, just over a month after the first doses of Sputnik V arrived and started to be administered.
The president of the National Academy of Medicine, Enrique López Loyo, assured that COVID-19 vaccination coverage did not reach 5 percent last Friday, and estimate that at this rate, herd immunization could be achieved in two years.
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ANDREINA ITRIAGO
EL TIEMPO correspondent
Caracas, Venezuela)