Venezuela registers six new COVID-19 cases, totals 367 - MPPRE

Venezuela registers six new COVID-19 cases, totals 367

“In the last 24 hours, we have registered six new COVID-19 cases in the states of Nueva Esparta and Bolivar for a total of 367 cases,” informed on Tuesday Vice-president Delcy Rodríguez. She explained 164 patients (44.7%) have recovered, 100 patients remain in sentinel hospitals, 73 in Comprehensive Diagnosis Centers (CDIs), 20 in private clinics and 10 people have died. “The significance of controlling COVID-19 lies in the isolation of cases, their treatment, control, testing and contact tracing. This has allowed us to keep the curve flattened,” she said. Rodríguez stressed that Venezuela is leading in Latin America with the highest number of tests done. So far, Venezuela has done 490,851 tests, representing 16,362 tests per 1 million population. Regarding the condition of patients, the Venezuelan vice-president pointed out there are 116 asymptomatic patients, 73 with mild respiratory insufficiency, 3 with moderate respiratory insufficiency and 1 patient in critical condition in an intensive care unit. “This is the danger of not complying with social distancing and personalized care,” she warned. Likewise, Rodríguez reported 27,322 Venezuelans have returned through border crossing points fleeing from xenophobia, hatred, and lack of medicines against COVID-19 in other countries. Venezuela activated a protocol to provide care and two-week isolation measures in its border crossing points before Venezuelans can continue their journeys home. Currently, “Venezuela has the lowest rate of COVID-19 cases and case fatality rate per 1 million population. We have to continue these measures that have enabled a collective curve flattening.” Nueva Esparta Hotspot Half of the cases registered in Venezuela today are located in Nueva Esparta State due to the outbreak caused by a baseball academy that did not observe the social, collective quarantine decreed by the Venezuelan government on March 16, 2020. The baseball academy hotspot has caused 49 COVID-19 cases so far, and the number of cases from the Coastal Guard Command hotspot rose to 48, said Rodríguez. “When we see the number of cases in each state, Nueva Esparta is leading with 116 cases (…) This represents 50% of all active cases in Venezuela and one third of the total cases in the country.” Finally, the Venezuelan vice-president asserted that if this hotspot did not exist, “Venezuela would have better numbers to show.”