The unusual official figures of the covid in Nicaragua as the country crosses a second wave

Nicaragua recorded only one death from covid-19 in the last week, As announced on Tuesday by the Ministry of Health (Minsa). This amount remains unchanged in the report presented by Minsa every Tuesday. In the same period, the report says, 675 new cases of covid-19 were known which, although they are 60 more than last week, represent the lowest numbers in the region.

According to official data, with 200 deaths, Nicaragua has the lowest mortality rate in Latin America and records only 0.9 percent of the 2,263,977 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the eight countries of the Central American Integration System.

However, these figures contradict the reality shown by the Nicaraguan media and social networks, which have become virtually obituaries where citizens announce the deaths of their relatives every day.

“You just have to smell the smell of death on Nicaraguan social networks where users are narrating their grief at the constant death of relatives, in clear disobedience to the silence that the regime wants to impose on the impact of covid -19 in the country, “said journalist Mildred Largaespada in an article published in the digital newspaper Confidencial.

“The Minsa has been reporting one death per covid 19 for six months. It doesn’t happen from here. Neither below nor above. It froze. A figure that no one in the world believes“Says Dr. Leonel Argüello, an expert epidemiologist.

Alone Lafise Bank reported the covid death of four of its workers within 48 hours a week the Ministry of Health records one death. “In the current week there were 1 death attributable to covid 19 and there were other deaths in people who have been in follow-up, due to pulmonary thromboembolism, diabetes mellitus, acute myocardial infarction, hypertensive crises and bacterial pneumonia,” he expresses. in an official report.

Nor does the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) rely on Nicaraguan government statistics. “PAHO does not have enough elements to assess the state of the pandemic in Nicaragua and in our place, where the situation is reported by country and trends, there are reports from all countries, but Nicaragua is blank,” he said. last August Ciro Ugarte, PAHO’s director of health emergencies, during a conference to address the pandemic situation.

The covid-19 Citizen Observatory, a multidisciplinary civil society organization that operates clandestinely and keeps an alternative register to the official one, reports in its latest weekly report 47 daily deaths “from pneumonia or suspected covid 19” for a accumulated 4,531 deaths, 22 times more than the deaths indicated by government figures.

According to the Minsa report, 10,245 people have been accumulated until this Tuesday, “who have been given careful and responsible follow-up”, as the official slang calls the confirmed cases, while the Citizen Observatory registers until Last September 8, 25,156 cases accumulated since the beginning of the pandemic.

For Dr. Argüello, the second wave of covid began in November in Nicaragua. And it has been fierce. “This second wave is bigger, still the numbers are higher than last year,” he says.

“In November, the Ministry of Health reported that the number of deaths from pneumonia had increased by seven or eight times, without linking them to covid, which was of course a product of covid. and from this month we started a second wave, with an ascending curve that has not stopped, but rather always goes up with more cases and deaths, but that has been constantly and permanently fed by different agglomerations such as Christmas, Cap New Year, Easter, and now with the Homeland Holidays, “he adds.

Argüello blames the Nicaraguan government for promoting activities that promote contagion. “Nicaragua is an exclusive country in the sense that it is the only one where its government intentionally infects the population”, Indica.

For the first weekend in September, the government announced 4,500 activities between fairs, and tourist, recreational, sporting, cultural and religious events. “Here we are with the whole country with all the care we deserve, which we must give ourselves, because it is the respect and love of each other, in almost 4,500 activities,” said Vice President Rosario Murillo.

This Tuesday, although Murillo asked Nicaraguans to beware of the threat of covid, he presented another package of activities to commemorate the Bicentennial of Independence. “This is how we go, comrades, taking great care of ourselves in this week of bicentennial holidays; taking care of everyone’s health, taking care of ourselves is loving, taking care of ourselves is protecting ourselves, taking care of ourselves is expressing “We are a conscious, responsible people who know how to move forward in the midst of all difficulties,” he said in his message every afternoon.

A few days ago, Daniel Ortega again dismissed the “stay home” as one of the measures to control the pandemic. “The solution, and it is proven in countries that wanted to force people, even imprisoning those who did not abide by the closure, this was not the solution. Rather it caused more deaths, and intrafamily problems. street, doing it carefully, you have to know how to go to work, doing it carefully, ”Ortega said on Sept. 6 during an event with police.

“Activities continue to be promoted, thousands of activities promoted by the central government and municipal governments that do not contribute to controlling the epidemic, but feed the epidemic so that it persists,” Dr. Argüello claims. “The epidemic in Nicaragua has never been controlled, it has not been tackled scientifically, nor is there an anti-epidemic fight or a leadership to control it.”

For Argüello, what needs to be done is, first, to inform the population in a transparent way, where the cases are so that the population is alerted and takes measures that modify their behavior to prevent it. “Second, give -access to the population so that laboratory tests can be done.Third, with the massive laboratory tests, people who have the virus are identified to isolate it. “This is how the transmission chain is cut,” he says.

“The disease has been treated in a partisan political way,” the epidemiologist adds. “No serious anti-epidemic activity has been carried out in the face of the greatest problem facing humanity. As we go along, people will continue to crowd and there will be more cases after this holiday. This has no end. People are dying and we are dying of chona (for free) as we say in Nicaragua. “

“Deaths are preventable, no one should die for covid and yes, there is responsibility of government and responsibility of the individual if care is not taken. We have a Ministry of Health that is not promoting health but rather disease. it makes sense. It’s absurd, “he concludes.

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