The network of doctors and volunteers of the Covid-19 Citizen Observatory warned that the population of Nicaragua “begins to trust” in the prevention of the new coronavirus pandemicwhat in the last two years it left between 14,800 and 33,400 deaths in the countryaccording to studies of excess mortality.
“Given that in the countries of the world there has been a relaxation of protection measures, in Nicaragua the population begins to trust. However, We have not reached the recommended immunization levels to trust in reducing protection measures”, indicated the Observatory.
This week, the Government of Brazil announced the end of the state of health emergency, Spain and El Salvador withdrew the obligation to wear masks in public spaces and in the United States it was announced that it is no longer necessary to wear masks on planes. Likewise, several countries in the region announced that they will no longer ask for negative covid-19 tests as an entry requirement.
In Nicaragua, the State never imposed restrictive measures, but the population began to use it voluntarily in the face of the pandemic. Neverthelessin recent months the use of face masks has been reduced and activities are carried out without social distancing.
“We have rushed to assume that we have also reached normality and therefore we can put aside the protection measures,” warns the Observatory.
According to data from the Ministry of Health (Minsa) shared with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Until April 22, 2022, Nicaragua reached 65.6% of its population vaccinated with the complete schedule. However, the latest official statistics revealed that the population of the Caribbean Coast, the poorest and most vulnerable, had the lowest rates, in these regions less than 30% of its inhabitants had completed the two-dose schedule.
Despite this, the Government of Daniel Ortega executes a new vaccination cycle in the population that was already vaccinated in 2021. As they said last Thursday, so far in 2022 more than 1.1 million people over two years of age were vaccinated .
PAHO recommends continuing to wear masks
The director of PAHO, Carissa Etienne, pointed out this Wednesday that The “time to lower our guard” has not yet come and that, according to the recent decision of the WHO Emergency Committee, covid-19 continues “to be a public health contingency of international importance.”
“We are still in the phase where we need to work hard to kill this virus, treat people and continue to vaccinate,” he said.
Dr. Ciro Ugarte, PAHO’s Director of Emergencies, pointed out that “We have not yet reached as a region and as a world the levels we need so that this virus does not continue to cause cases and deaths. (…) The only way to end this acute phase is to achieve high vaccination coverage, maintain surveillance and have good clinical management.”
Misinformation hinders epidemiological surveillance
In his report, The Citizen Observatory denounces that in Nicaragua it is difficult to carry out epidemiological surveillance due to the level of misinformation promoted by the State. They, who have kept an independent count of suspicious cases and deaths, have been affected by the population’s fear of reprisals by the Nicaraguan Government and the apparent “normalization” of the pandemic situation.
“In Nicaragua The conditions do not exist for the epidemiological surveillance of covid-19 to function properly, because the Minsa has a centralized monopoly on diagnostic tests and the importation of other tests has not been approved,” they point out.
In addition, They denounce that disinformation has also prevailed in vaccination. “It is not known with certainty how many have been vaccinated or what vaccine they received. We don’t even know their certification status! This situation of misinformation allows the circulation of countless rumors that do not always help immunization efforts”, they affirm.
In this stage, the volunteers conclude that the virus and its variants continue to circulate, for which the population must assume its own risk. “Given the ignorance of the real situation of the pandemic in the country, it is better to continue protecting yourself.”
With information from EFE
