Minister of People’s Power for Health Carlos Alvarado participated at a virtual meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement Contact Group, themed “United against COVID-19,” under the Pro Tempore Presidency of Azerbaijan.
Via video conference, representatives of different regions comprising NAM exchanged experiences on medical, scientific, technological, safety and social advances that have been developed to fight and control the propagation of COVID-19.
In this regard, Minister Alvarado made remarks on the efforts made by the Bolivarian Government in the last months to foster health, prevention and comprehensive care provided to potential and confirmed COVID-19 patients in order to keep the curve flattened and low morbidity and fatality rates.
“To address the pandemic, Venezuela created a Presidential Commission for the Prevention and Control of Coronavirus (COVID-19), headed by President Nicolás Maduro,” he pointed out.
Alvarado said that “the Presidential Commission developed a plan in two phases: the first one before the first case was detected and the second one when the two first cases were confirmed on March 13, when the sanitary emergency was declared and the Venezuelan government took drastic, rapid measures such as a massive, volunteer quarantine.
He also pointed out that families in quarantine have been protected by granting direct, economic bonuses, food bags and the temporary payment of payrolls of small and medium-sized private companies.
These actions have been taken while facing big economic obstacles, warned Alvarado, as he reiterated a crime is being committed against the Venezuelan people through the illegal imposition of unilateral coercive measures.
Venezuela’s bank accounts in the United States and Europe have been frozen, causing difficulties to access food and medicines, not to mention a new attempted coup d’état amid the pandemic with the participation of the U.S. government, asserted the Venezuelan health minister.
Alvarado recalled that President Nicolás Maduro has insisted on calling for an end of all conflicts and a world agreement to achieve peace.
Regarding the regional panorama, he mentioned the Venezuelan state’s concern about the rise in imported COVID-19 cases from Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Chile, and explained that nearly 85% of all new cases, Venezuelan nationals returning home, come from these brother countries.
During his speech, the Venezuelan health minister reiterated the request made by the Venezuelan president to create a NAM Council of Specialists to share experiences, develop research and guarantee universal access to vaccines and treatments against this pandemic.
The Venezuelan representative thanked for the humanitarian cooperation and solidarity of the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN System, China, Russia, Cuba, Iran, nd other international organizations.
“Only with the joint action of all countries, international respect and solidarity, we will be able to guarantee success in the fight against this pandemic that has cost so many lives to humankind,”, he said.
Noteworthily, “this meeting is the result of agreements reached at the Virtual Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM),” wrote Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza on his Twitter account @jaarreaza.
