COVID-19 pandemic in Nicaragua
The COVID-19 pandemic in Nicaragua was a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus was shown to have spread to Nicaragua when the first case, a Nicaraguan citizen who had returned to the country from Panama, was confirmed on 18 March 2020.[3]
According to official figures from the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health,[4] after the first case was reported on 18 March 2020, very few cases were detected for the following 8 weeks until a significant increase in the number of cases began in May 2020.
Subsequently, from around mid-July 2020 the rate of new cases rapidly decreased, and as of January 2021, the country as a whole is showing one of the lowest number of cases in Latin America.[5]
However, opposition leaders have criticized the government's approach to controlling the pandemic,[6][7] and an organisation called Citizens Observatory[8] has stated that the figures are significantly higher, particularly the number of deaths.
Background[edit]
On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.[9][10]
The case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has been much lower than SARS of 2003,[11][12] but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll.[13][11]
Response[edit]
Methods of controlling the virus[edit]
The government initially focused on an education program, with health professionals and volunteers visiting 1.2 million households in the last week of March, and additional information being distributed via TV and other media.
The government's response to the crisis was stated to be an attempt to keep the pandemic under control whilst allowing the country to continue normal activity without lockdown. The government's approach was explicitly published on 25 May, in its "White Book", a publication explaining its approach to controlling the outbreak.[14][15] In the document Nicaragua's approach is likened to that of Sweden: "With the increasing abandon of the "lockdowns", all the countries of the world will have to combine defense against the Coronavirus with the functioning of society, just as Nicaragua and Sweden have done from the beginning."[16] The Nicaraguan government regarded the use of lockdowns as impractical as most Nicaraguans need to leave home each day to earn enough to survive. The government's response started in January 2020, when it established Covid wards in 18 hospitals, put health checks in place at the country's points of entry with mandatory quarantines and tackled misinformation about the virus. Almost five million house to house visits by "health brigades" were conducted to provide information to residents.[17]
Children returned to school after the Easter 2020 break as normal, government employees returned to work and most activity continued with minimal limitations. President Daniel Ortega said Nicaraguans "haven't stopped working, because if this country stops working, it dies."[18]
Ana Emilia Solís, from the World Health Organization stated in March 2020 that since January, when the Nicaraguan Government declared a sanitary alert due to the threat of COVID-19: "Nicaragua has been working according to [WHO] guidelines. It has been working hard on the enlistment of health services, strengthening epidemiological surveillance and has been working with the Community Health Network to identify possible cases that may occur at the community level".[19]
A delegation from the Pan American Health Organization, the regional branch of the WHO, visited the country in the second week of March to coordinate measures to protect against the virus. Alexander Florencio, a representative of the delegation, stated that "the best conditions are being prepared". Florencio added that "provisions being made [by the government] have incorporated all PAHO recommendations."[20]
Criticism[edit]
Some critics of Daniel Ortega's government initially claimed that the government was downplaying the severity of the virus.[6][7] An estimate by an organisation called the Citizens' Observatory,[21] asserted in May that the number of cases was 4 times and the number of deaths 20 times the official figure;[22] however, the provenance of these figures is undocumented and the identity of the organisation unknown.[23] Later in August 2020, the hacker group Anonymous would post to a Twitter account called "Lorian Synaro" a set of COVID-19 data stolen from the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health, which prompted a former director of epidemiology who had left the country to conclude, "from day one they were misrepresenting and misreporting COVID-19 in Nicaragua in a completely intentional way."[24]
Prior to the arrival of the virus in Nicaragua, a large public rally was organized by government supporters in solidarity with coronavirus victims in other countries. However, the event was criticized for lack of social distancing.[25] The opposition party grouping, the National Coalition, wrote a letter of complaint to the World Health Organization, arguing that WHO representative Ana Emilia Solis should be promoting more extreme measures to fight the virus, despite Solis's advice being in line with WHO guidelines.[26]
On 18 May 2020, about 700 health workers wrote a letter to the government, urging it to take preventive measures suggested by the WHO to control the spread of COVID-19 in the country. They raised concerns over the weak public health system and how people's lives were at risk as a result. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), in response to the letter, several health workers were fired from their jobs in June by Nicaraguan Health Ministry without any legal procedures. HRW urged the Nicaraguan authorities to give the workers back their job with salary compensation and to take required preventive measure to control the pandemic.[27]
Vaccination[edit]
Nicaragua is with Guatemala and Honduras the slowest country concerning the vaccination against COVID-19 in Central America.[80] By early June 2021, Nicaragua has administered 2.5 doses per 100 people which equals a total of 167,500 doses administered.[80] Nicaragua has received 135,000 doses of vaccine through the COVAX mechanism,[81] a worldwide initiative that aims at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. The initiative allocated a total of 432,000 doses to Nicaragua which will be delivered over the course of the year 2021.[82] Nicaragua has received donations of 6,000 doses of the Sputnik V by the Russian Direct Investment Fund,[82] as well as 200,000 doses of the Covishield (AstraZeneca/Oxford) vaccine by India.[83] Similar to Honduras, Guatemala and Paraguay, Nicaragua has not received vaccine donations from China as the nation maintains diplomatic ties with Taiwan and recognizes Taipei over Beijing.[84] Moreover, Nicaragua plans to purchase 6.86 million doses of vaccines with 100 million US$ in financing approved by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI).[85] That way, the Government of Nicaragua aims at vaccinating 3.27 million Nicaraguans starting with workers at border points, teachers, tourism professionals and other institutions as well as risk groups between 40 and 59 years of age.[85]