Nicaragua closed 2021 with slight progress in access to information and transparency related to the covid-19 pandemic, despite commitments with multilateral organizations that urged to disclose data on the pandemic.
According to a review by CONFIDENTIAL, to the transparency agreements to which the Government of Nicaragua agreed, to obtain a series of loans to combat the pandemic -that amount to a total of 185.4 million dollars- with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Inter-American Bank Development, the authorities have partially fulfilled their commitments.
The main commitments in the agreements were to publish official figures on infections by sex, age and place; deaths, lethality, PCR tests performed and their results, expenses related to the pandemic, updating rooms and epidemiological bulletins. Although some of this information was recently shared, it was not done with the level of detail and precision that was requested.
The authorities of the Ministry of Health (Minsa) published this month, 46 of the epidemiological bulletins of 2021, which they had suspended in May 2020 after an increase in deaths from pneumonia attributable to covid-19 was alerted. In these they revealed for the first time data on the total PCR tests carried out in the country: 144,170 until November 28, but they did not include a breakdown of how many were positive, how many were negative, or how many were paid for travel reasons.
Likewise, these documents included a couple of graphs in which the Ministry of Health (Minsa) exposes those infected in 2021 by gender and age, but without revealing figures that allow corroborating the information or making more in-depth analyzes. Meanwhile, the epidemiological rooms, where you can see the impact of epidemics by department, have not been updated since May 2020.
The “covid contracts” have not been updated in real time either. The authorities have included four updates of purchases made during the pandemic that include at least 60 contracts, but leave out acquisitions that favored companies related to the Government, as revealed by journalistic investigations.
Two years without vital statistics
During 2021, the Minsa also did not update the Health Map, which reveals information on the number of hospitalizations and the 15 most frequent causes of death in the country. These latest data allowed last year to know the excess mortality that occurred during the first six months of the pandemic that, according to medical opinions, are attributable to covid-19 and placed the country among the countries with the highest mortality.
“It is a devastating epidemic, we are among the highest mortality rates in the world and on the continent, the largest under-registration of countries with studies. Let’s draw lessons from this, let’s avoid a repeat of the tragedy, ”said members of the Multidisciplinary Scientific Committee, which in 2021 dissolved itself in the face of political persecution from the Government.
The authorities have also not published the compendium of vital statistics for the last two years, where they collect, in detail, the numbers of death and birth certificates at the national level. This document is released by the National Institute for Development Information (INIDE), but has not been updated since 2019.
On the other hand, the authorities have limited themselves to sharing certain data in interviews with official media, in which they highlight the achievements they had in the year and mention some numbers on hospitalizations, but not deaths.
According to an interview given on December 13 of last year by the head of the Minsa, Martha ReyesUp to that date, in 2021, there were 538,800 hospitalizations, 43% more than those reported a year ago. However, he did not explain if this increase is related to the second wave of covid-19 that was greater than the first.
Regarding the mortality figures, he only compared the infant, maternal and cervical cancer mortality rates that occurred in 2021 with those registered in 2006, before Daniel Ortega assumed the presidency.
Repression against doctors who warn about the pandemic
In an effort to impose opacity, the authorities also unleashed a repressive wave against the medical union, health organizations and journalists who report on the pandemic.
At least 15 medical organizations, including the Nicaraguan Medical Association, the Pneumology Medical Association, the Diabetology Association, among others, lost their legal status after the National Assembly approved a cancellation decree ensuring that they did not “comply” with their legal obligations. and statutory, despite the “obstacles” imposed by the same Ministry of the Interior (Migob) during the last three years.
Likewise, the Minsa summoned with “obligatory character”, before the Directorate of Sanitary Regulation and the Directorate of Legal Advice of this institution, a dozen independent doctors whom it questioned for their statements to the media and threatened them with the Law of Cybercrime and the cancellation of your medical license.
“According to what they told me, the Ministry of Health is the only one that is authorized and that there is no need to disseminate information so as not to cause anguish and anxiety in the population,” said one of the aforementioned doctors.
The threats to the union caused many doctors to decide to go into exile, others to stop giving interviews or speaking while protecting their identities. However, the greatest loss caused by the repression was the self-dissolution of the Multidisciplinary Scientific Committee, which during the first year of the pandemic provided preventive and analytical information on the pandemic.
The COVID-19 Citizen Observatory, which conducts independent monitoring of infections and suspicious deaths from the pandemic, given the void in official statistics, was also affected. At various times in 2021 they lost the ability to collect information due to repression.
“The reports received by the Observatory showed a clear increase as of May 2021, this coincided with the evident upward trend reported by the Minsa in its weekly reports, curiously, since the arrests and the application of Recent laws, despite the increase reported by the Minsa and the fact that we know that the epidemic has not been controlled, the reports we receive have decreased ”, they indicated in June of last year.
However, during the second wave of covid-19, which was stronger than the first, they resumed the frequency of infections and deaths. But after reducing the outbreak, which coincided with the voting in which Daniel Ortega secured his fourth term without electoral competition, they lost capacity and now changed their weekly report to biweekly.
