Venezuela extends State of Alarm over COVID-19 for 30 days

The Venezuelan government extended the COVID-19 related State of Alarm, provided for in Article 338 of the Constitution, for 30 days to protect the population from the spread of COVID-19. President Nicolás Maduro endorsed the decree and called the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court for its assessment for its entry into force. “I am renewing the 30-day state-of-alert decree in order to continue protecting our people beyond June,” he said at the Miraflores Presidential Palace, in Caracas. The measure, initially approved on March 13 and renewed on April 11, is a mechanism aimed at developing strategies to prevent, contain and fight novel coronavirus. Earlier, the Venezuelan president called on Venezuelans to maintain their discipline and comply with social distancing in order to avoid the spread of this virus, whose number of cases rises to 423 in the South American country. Worldwide 4,334,596 COVID-19 cases have been recorded in 212 countries. Out of this total number, 1,575,629 patients have recovered and 292,247 have died.