In his address at the 58th Directing Council of PAHO and 72nd Session of the Regional Committee of WHO for the Americas Virtual Session, , Minister of People’s Power for Health, Carlos Alvarado, denounced on Tuesday that the unilateral coercive measures have prevented Venezuela from honoring payment commitments to the PAHO Strategic and Revolving Fund, thus affecting the access to medicines and vaccines.
The Venezuelan health minister referred to the $30 billion that have been seized overseas, preventing the country from using them amid the COVID-19 pandemic to purchase food and health supplies.
Nevertheless, he explained Venezuela has registered a low and sustained growth of COVID-19 cases from mid-June up to September, and already started the “plateau phase” of the COVID-19 curve.
Alvarado pointed out that Venezuela has registered a morbidity rate of 2.3 cases per 1,000 population and a mortality rate of 1.9 deaths per 100,000 population. Likewise, he said nearly 100,000 Venezuelans have returned through the borders with Brazil and Colombia to seek health and social security.
“One in ten Venezuelans who have returned carries the virus,” he said.
“We also estimate around 40,000 Venezuelans have returned through irregular crossing points and have spread the virus in different places, increasing community cases,” he added.
In his speech, Minister Alvarado thanked the humanitarian cooperation of the World Health Organization, the PAHO, the United Nations System and the “brotherly governments of China, Russia, Cuba, Iran, and other countries.”