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The doctor and deputy of the National Assembly, José Manuel Olivares, confirmed on Wednesday a positive case of covid-19 in the military prison of Ramo Verde. The case involves a lieutenant colonel who was transferred from Táchira State, without any protection measures, putting at risk the lives of the other political prisoners there held in appalling conditions.
In a digital press conference, Olivares presented statistics that show that the rate of infection by covid-19 in Venezuelan territory is higher when compared to that of Colombian territory. This refutes Nicolas Maduro’s claim that Venezuelans returning to the country through the border are used by the Colombian government as “biological weapons” to spread the virus in Venezuela.
“Venezuelans get sick once they cross the border… because they are locked up without tools to protect themselves from the virus and without hygienic conditions. They are confined in crowded areas where the rate of infection is higher,” he said.
The congressman warned that the average occupancy rate of intensive care centers nationwide is 40%, but that in some states it has already reached 100% of its capacity to care for those infected. Such are the cases of the Hospital José Gregorio Hernández, in Amazonas; the Hospital Universitario de Los Andes, in Mérida; the Hospital Luis Razetti, in Anzoátegui, with only two beds and two occupied ventilators; the Hospital Militar de Maracay, in Aragua; the Hospital Universitario Dr. Alfredo Van Grieken and the Hospital Calles Sierra, located in the state of Falcón.
The parliamentarian said that Maduro continues to lie and manipulate information about the development of the disease in the country: “The regime announces the death of 71 Venezuelans due to covid-19 infection, but, from the monitoring we do through doctors and health centers in the country, we can confirm that there are 130 deaths from coronavirus in Venezuela, which raises the mortality rate from the virus to 2%.”
Furthermore, he denounced that in the middle of the pandemic Maduro preferred to buy 49,000 electoral machines and spend millions on vans, rather than 49,000 ventilators that could save the lives of many Venezuelans or invest in the importation of medical supplies to have implements in hospitals to care for those infected with the virus. “That’s how much they care about Venezuelans dying from covid-19.”
With respect to PCR-type tests, the representative of the National Assembly pointed out that Venezuela continues to be the country that performs the fewest tests in the entire continent. He insisted on the need to decentralize the tests and informed that in the country there are six public and ten private laboratories able to process samples, which would allow an earlier diagnosis and a real projection of the disease.
Olivares also questioned and warned about the new announcements made by the regime’s health minister, Carlos Alvarado, for treatment against covid-19 in Venezuela. In the parliamentarian’s opinion, these are medicines that lack scientific support in general, which have been rejected by the World Health Organization (WHO) and which show the level of improvisation on the part of Maduro’s government in the middle of the pandemic.
Olivares explained that chloroquine, a treatment against the virus proposed by Alvarado, was withdrawn Jun. 17 by the WHO because it did not prove to reduce the mortality rate of the affected. This, like interferon, chlorine dioxide and homeopathy, lacks scientific soundness and is not a solution for patients infected with coronavirus. “They propose this as part of a business deal with Cuba, because they are products made in Havana.”
#8Jul | Maduro sigue mintiendo y manipulando la información sobre el desarrollo de la enfermedad en el país, anuncia la muerte de 71 venezolanos por contagio de #COVID19, pero por el monitoreo que hacemos a través de médicos y centros de salud confirma que son 130 los fallecidos. pic.twitter.com/QSDI2IAt4I
— Asamblea Nacional (@AsambleaVE) July 8, 2020
