COVID-19 pandemic in Nicaragua
The virus was shown to have spread to Nicaragua when the first case, a Nicaraguan citizen who had returned to the country from Panama, was confirmed on 18 March 2020.
[5] However, opposition leaders have criticized the government's approach to controlling the pandemic,[6][7] and an organisation called Citizens Observatory[8][non-primary source needed] has stated that the figures are significantly higher, particularly the number of deaths.
On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.
[13][11] The government initially focused on an education program, with health professionals and volunteers visiting 1.2 million households in the last week of March, and additional information being distributed via TV and other media.
The government's response to the crisis was stated to be an attempt to keep the pandemic under control whilst allowing the country to continue normal activity without lockdown.
The government's response started in January 2020, when it established Covid wards in 18 hospitals, put health checks in place at the country's points of entry with mandatory quarantines and tackled misinformation about the virus.
"[18] Ana Emilia Solís, from the World Health Organization stated in March 2020 that since January, when the Nicaraguan Government declared a sanitary alert due to the threat of COVID-19: "Nicaragua has been working according to [WHO] guidelines.
[19] A delegation from the Pan American Health Organization, the regional branch of the WHO, visited the country in the second week of March to coordinate measures to protect against the virus.
[23] Later in August 2020, the hacker group Anonymous would post to a Twitter account called "Lorian Synaro" a set of COVID-19 data stolen from the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health, which prompted a former director of epidemiology who had left the country to conclude, "from day one they were misrepresenting and misreporting COVID-19 in Nicaragua in a completely intentional way.
"[24] Prior to the arrival of the virus in Nicaragua, a large public rally was organized by government supporters in solidarity with coronavirus victims in other countries.
HRW urged the Nicaraguan authorities to give the workers back their job with salary compensation and to take required preventive measure to control the pandemic.
[30] On 17 March, Murillo announced that Cuba was going to send doctors and pharmaceuticals to Nicaragua to help deal with coronavirus, despite there being no confirmed cases in the country at the time.
[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48] On 12 May, the Ministry of Health announced a notable increase in infection with a further 9 cases identified, bringing the total to 25, including 3 deaths.
[65] On 1 September Forbes International reported that Nicaragua had the highest recovery rate in the Central American Integration System (SICA) area at 91.25%, ahead of Guatemala on 83.13% and Panama on 71.39%.
[83] Similar to Honduras, Guatemala and Paraguay, Nicaragua has not received vaccine donations from China as the nation maintains diplomatic ties with Taiwan and recognizes Taipei over Beijing.
[85] That way, the Government of Nicaragua aims at vaccinating 3.27 million Nicaraguans starting with workers at border points, teachers, tourism professionals and other institutions as well as risk groups between 40 and 59 years of age.
[22] As of August 2020, the Citizens Observatory was claiming some 9,000 cases, which was around double the official count, but still massively lower than all other Central American countries except (at that time) sparsely populated Belize.
However, the Citizens Observatory gave no indication of the provenance of these claims which, according to John Perry, writing for the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, consist of "anonymous experts", who create their own figures from "civil society, networks, digital activists and affected families"[23][8][87] and from something described as "spontaneous public opinions".
[91] In late May 2020, multiple members of the Fieras del San Fernando of the Nicaraguan Professional Baseball League contracted COVID.
