Brazil and Colombia Are Epidemiological Threats to Venezuela

Venezuela's Communication Minister Jorge Rodriguez Friday reported that seven new COVID-19 cases were registered in the last 24 hours, which increases the number of infected to 318.

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He informed that 95 people have been hospitalized in 'sentinel' hospitals and 10 people have died from the pandemic. This a low number of victims would obey the strict measures established to detect new cases timely and to treat them.

"To date, 394,125 diagnostic tests have been performed in 2009 and this has been another key element in stopping the coronavirus," Rodriguez said.

The Communication minister denounced that the opposition lawmaker Juan Guaido once again runs a smear campaign against President Nicolas Maduro's administration.

Specifically, the U.S.-backed politician has been installing fake news aimed at making the international community believe that the Bolivarian government cannot control the pandemic.

In this sense, for example, the Washington Post depicted Venezuela as a threat to regional epidemiological security. The data, however, show just the opposite.

​​​​​​​"Venezuela performed 187 percent more COVID-19 tests than Chile and 891 percent more tests than Colombia," Rodriguez recalled and mentioned that Bolivian medical teams have visited over 200,000 homes to verify their health status.

"Besides, since March 15, we have been doing a virtual survey that over 18 million people have already answered," he added.

All of this has happened even though President Donald Trump administration has arbitrarily confiscated billions of dollars that the Venezuelan people could have used to face the pandemic with more material and human resources.​​​​​​​

In this regard, Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza recalled that humanitarian organizations have stressed that the U.S. sanctions are playing a harmful role against the Bolivarian ​​​​​​​population.

"The International Federation of the Red Cross affirms that U.S. sanctions make it difficult for humanitarian supplies to enter Venezuela. The truth prevails. No one can deny what is evident. The U.S. must lift sanctions in times of pandemic,” Arreaza tweeted.

As of Friday morning, Brazil reported 51,073 COVID-19 cases and 3,407 deaths. So far, Colombia has acknowledged 4,561 infected people and 215 deaths.