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Venezuela reports 1st coronavirus cases


Bangladeshpost
Published : 14 Mar 2020 08:45 PM | Updated : 03 Sep 2020 09:02 PM

Venezuela confirmed its first two cases of the coronavirus Friday, deepening anxiety in a crisis-stricken nation where many hospitals lack basics such as water and soap and struggle to treat even basic ailments, reports AP. The announcement prompted President Iván Duque of neighboring Colombia to order his nation’s border with Venezuela closed as a coronavirus containment measure.

“God help us,” hospital patient Carlos Chacón said after hearing the news that the pandemic had arrived in his native Venezuela. “My mom is old and sick. So is my father,” said Chacón, a 48-year-old electrician who was first hospitalized four months ago with two broken legs from a motorcycle accident. “Here I am in this condition, stuck in this hospital bed.”

Earlier Friday, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez delivered the news that Venezuelans feared was coming A 52-year-old man who had recently traveled from Spain and a 41-year-old woman who had returned from a trip through the U.S., Italy and Spain had been diagnosed with the virus.

Schools across Venezuela immediately closed, a day after President Nicolás Maduro suspended flights with Europe and Colombia in an attempt to ward off the illness. Juan Guaidó also called off upcoming street demonstrations, taking away one of the U.S-backed opposition leader’s tools in his year-long battle to oust Maduro.

Health experts say Venezuela’s population is particularly the region’s most vulnerable and worry the virus could easily spread in a nation paralyzed by a political and economic crisis.

The country of roughly 30 million people was once a wealthy oil producer, pumping from the world’s largest reserves. Today, it’s beset by conflict, poverty and massive power failures that have driven out an estimated 4.5 million migrants in recent years.

Venezuela’s government does not publish health care statistics, but there are deep shortages of antibiotics and general supplies, including scarcities of basic items needed to confront an epidemic.

“Most hospitals don’t have water, face masks or even soap,” said Dr. Patricia Valenzuela, board member of the Venezuelan Society of Infectology. “We’re not prepared.”

A report by Humans Rights Watch in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health concluded last year that the health system in Venezuela has “totally collapsed.” It cited rising levels of maternal and child mortality as well as the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases.

The U.N. World Food Program recently said that nearly one-third of Venezuela’s population are unable to meet basic dietary needs.