Nicaragua COVID-19 Update 7th April
From: Ministry of Nicaragua
As per the latest report by the Ministry of Health on the 6th of April, Nicaragua currently has three registered active cases, two people fully recovered, and one person who tragically passed away, who suffered from severe underlying health problems. All the cases were imported and there is no local transmission. Eleven people are currently quarantined under close observation after coming into contact with the confirmed cases or coming from affected countries; none of these people have tested positive for COVID-19.
For the full report from the Central American Integration System, which includes these numbers and further information, and whose numbers are recognised by the World Health Organisation and the Pan American Health Organisation, please see here.
The Government of Nicaragua, together with civil society, has mobilised over 250,000 healthcare volunteers and professionals, who have now reached over two million households in the whole country (with a total population of 6 million) at least once, in many cases twice, in the second cycle of more than two weeks of a co-ordinated and intensive nationwide campaign to educate people on preventative measures, test for the virus and ensure hospitals and local clinics are equipped with the staff and equipment they need. Furthermore, the Government has prepared 19 specialised hospitals and work is underway to produce Interferon alfa-2b in Nicaragua, a drug to treat the virus. Full testing is also in place at all entry and exit points to Nicaragua, in collaboration with neighbours Costa Rica and Honduras. Nicaragua’s strong, community based response to the pandemic has been recognised by the World Health Organisation since the arrival of the disease in Central America.
Regional and international co-operation are central to Nicaragua’s response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Together with the Heads of State and Governments of Belize, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama, the President of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, signed and is actively leading the collective implementation of the Central American Integration System (CAIS) Contingency Plan, to date the world’s most comprehensive regional co-operation plan against the virus, which is now backed by US$1.9bn from the Central American Bank of Economic Integration (CABEI), for testing, healthcare, equipment and economic stimulus.
On Saturday, Nicaragua’s Minister of Health, Dr Martha Reyes, took part in an Extraordinary Virtual Meeting of the Council of Ministers of Health of Central America (COMISCA), which included the Health Ministers from all the CAIS countries, where they updated each other on progress and decided on the next steps for the implementation of the Contingency Plan. In another sign of this spirit of regional unity, the CAIS has also released an official video of the Heads of State and Government of all member countries, including President Ortega, sending messages of hope and determination to their people.
Further to this, Taiwan announced on Friday an increase of the technical cooperation program, with an additional US$1m to Nicaragua’s fight against the Pandemic, which is further to more than 29,000 sanitary masks, as well as meetings with leading experts and authorities from the country sharing their world recognised COVD-19 containment strategy, while Cuba maintains a Medical Brigade of Doctors and Nurses in our country and is helping with the production of Interferon alfa-2b to treat patients. The People’s Republic of China is also providing co-operation with strategic advice from their experts, including a call with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, in which Nicaragua actively participated.
