Two years after the “radical” quarantine measures were implemented in Venezuela to deal with COVID-19, members of the health sector still point to the opacity with which the authorities handled the information related to the development of the pandemic.
According to President Nicolás Maduro, COVID-19 has been “a stress test” for the “free and quality” public system in Venezuela, which has faced it “successfully.”
He assures that the country has the “lowest level of contagion”, of “five cases per 100,000 inhabitants” and maintains that Venezuela demonstrates the “capacity” of the public system for preventive care.
According to Maduro, in February 102% of the Venezuelan population was already immunized, but a survey by the Venezuelan COVID Observatory showed that as of February 15, only 49.4% of Venezuelans had received the first two doses and a 5, 4% booster dose.
In the survey, 25.3% of people who have not been immunized said they did not want to be vaccinated, and 7.4% said they did not find the vaccine at the vaccination center they visited.
When presenting the survey, the infectious disease doctor Julio Castro said that it is “one more of different methodologies to evaluate a scenario where we do not have reliable information” and compared Venezuela with other countries in the region where the Ministries of Health update with detailed data. the vaccination process.
“In Venezuela, unfortunately, we do not have that information beyond some data that some political spokesmen report sporadically and that is why we believe it is important to put figures on such an important value as vaccination,” Castro explained.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) reflects on its website that 49.8% of the population in Venezuela is already immunized with two doses.
Maduro, who insists on denouncing that international sanctions limited the country’s access to medicines and medical supplies, announced that people will have to apply booster vaccines every four months.
“From now on, until further notice that medicines are discovered that heal, cure the coronavirus like any other flu, until that time comes or until the time comes that gives total immunity to the body for a long time,” he said through of the state channel on Tuesday night.
Fragility
Spokesmen from the health sector state that the fragility with which COVID-19 found the health system in a complex humanitarian emergency has not been overcome.
Douglas León Natera, president of the Venezuelan Medical Federation, said last week that only between 3 and 10% of 301 hospitals have surgical medical material to resolve medical circumstances.
“That patient who goes to a hospital runs the risk of not leaving and if it goes well it is because he has obtained the supply, the medicine, outside, with borrowed money, and the problem has been solved, but not because the hospital, which is forced to give him the resource, supply it, because there is nothing, ”he revealed.
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