November closed with the lowest number of new positive cases (110 infections) and deaths (25) confirmed in Nicaragua by the COVID-19 Citizen Observatory during 2021. However, it is due to the reduction in the number of reports received, which has forced for this civil society initiative to present its reports every fifteen days and not every eight, as it has been doing.
Every week, the information on new infections and suspicious deaths from the pandemic from departments throughout the country has decreased, as an effect of the fear instilled in the population through the permanence of an indiscriminate repressive policy by the Ortega regime.
“This decrease is a consequence, among others, of the fear of reprisals on the part of the Nicaraguan Government for providing information ”, The Observatory indicated in its report on Friday, December 3. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Ortega Murillo regime has established a policy of secrecy, around information related to the pandemic, and the imposition of a kind of “normality”, contrary to what most countries have done in the world, which took steps to reduce infections and deaths. Added to this is a de facto police state that the regime has maintained since September 2018 to prevent any manifestation of dissent.
The information collected through an interdisciplinary network of civil society, territorial voices, digital activists and families of affected people, has allowed to keep track of the pandemic in the national territory. The data has also been consulted by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), given the brief information on the covid-19 pandemic provided by the Ministry of Health (Minsa).
In addition, the statistics of the Observatory have also made it possible to perform data analysis and estimate the excess mortality from covid-19, which is still invisible by the Minsa. It has also facilitated a closer look at the impact of SAR-CoV-2 in the country’s departments.
Since the start of the covid-19 pandemic, the Minsa has never presented a report with data disaggregated by departments and age groups. Nor has it specified the number of infections and deaths in Health personnel as a result of the coronavirus, as the Observatory has done, considering it one of the population groups most exposed to transmission of the virus.
At the same time, the Observatory reported that they will stop updating the interactive pages hosted on their website. They assure that this will allow them “to guarantee the security of the citizen networks that collect data”, and to make sure “not to inform the population with what we know is very incomplete data.”
Although fewer cases of covid-19 are reported in the country, the population must continue to implement prevention measures, mainly because they continue to promote agglomeration activities that increase the risk of contagion; the circulation of the four variants of concern and the threat of the new strain, omicron, warns the entity.
“The reception keep going from information upon cases moderate to serious, us does to think that there are a number from cases mild and asymptomatic that no we’re capturing ”, indicates the Observatory in its report.
Deaths due to covid-19
The Observatory highlights that the 23% from the reports received correspond to deaths suspected (25) for covid-19 this month. While in the same period of time, the Minsa has admitted five deaths.
“It is undeniable that it is plus hard hide a death, and that only us confirm our fear, that we’re very far from that the pandemic this controlled on Nicaragua. This reduction on the number from reports no has to interpret What that the pandemic he has finished and I know may relax the taking from measures from prevention of contagion ”, suggests the Observatory.
According to the statistics of the Observatory, there are 5,953 suspicious deaths due to covid-19, while the Minsa maintains 213.
