[News] "Apocalyptic": the shocking story of a nurse about what Venezuela is experiencing due to the covid

[WilkerCSBD]

The pandemic has been handled disastrously in Venezuela. I am a head nurse in a hospital in Caracas and I could say that we really work out of passion. The difficulties are enormous. The salary is very low and there is no element of protection. I decided to give this testimony anonymously so that many know what is happening in my country, understand why thousands flee to Colombia. But I keep my name so I don't have any retaliation. In the Nicolás Maduro regime, no one can complain about anything.

When the pandemic arrived in Venezuela there was no planning. Despite the fact that the outbreak had acquired international importance for months and had become a pandemic in January 2020, in the country there was never the required information. A fact that shows how little was known and the improvisation with which everything was done is that supposedly 46 hospitals were set up, but none were prepared. Out of 20, only 4 were sentinel hospitals. And one of them was closed.

Covid in Venezuela
(AP Photo / Matias Delacroix) - Photo: AP
That cheerful way of handling the pandemic makes us have a serious situation today. Review. And may the peaks take us more inclemently.

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The presence of a new variant of Covid, from Manaus (Brazil), much more aggressive and with a high level of contagion, has put the country in check. Today we see how our hospitals continue to collapse. The endowment is quite meager. We have our intensive care units full and the work already exceeds health personnel in human terms.

CARACAS, VENEZUELA - FEBRUARY 17: Nicolas Maduro President of Venezuela smiles in a press conference in Miraflores Palace on February 17, 2021 in Caracas, Venezuela. Nicolas Maduro President of Venezuela announced the country will start vaccinating health workers from Thursday with the Covid-19 Vaccine Sputnik V. (Photo by Carolina Cabral / Getty Images)
Due to the increase in infections in Colombia, Maduro
To date we have 442 deceased medical staff. Nobody answers for them. And we have had to make collections to be able to bury them. One of the great problems that Venezuela has had is that it is impossible to determine the infected and the deceased. PCRs are very rare, if not non-existent. Today there are health workers, more than a year after the pandemic, they have not undergone a diagnostic test.

Covid in Venezuela

(AP Photo / Matias Delacroix) - Photo: AP
If someone in a hospital has symptoms, the policy is to send them home for 14 days without testing, you will never know if it is an infection, if it is another viral process or if it is indeed Covid.

In hospitals we lack everything. We do not have water services in more than 80 percent of the hospitals. the total and absolute loss of the purchasing power of Venezuelans. So much so that social networks in Venezuela are today a social security institute. It is very common to see financial support on Twitter or Facebook to be able to buy any medically, to have masks, because there are none.

In Venezuela health should be free, and it is free at all levels, but if there is no way to care for people, then it does not matter if it is not. The situation has been so dire that even the private sector is collapsing. Many people go to clinics where there is no material and are exhausted looking and seeking care. Today, in addition, the number of infected people is impressive.

In addition, the restriction measures in Venezuela are unreal. The radical quarantine in Venezuela is impossible because there is no way to eat. In other countries where there is a sufficient salary, these measures can take place, but here people have to go out to find bread. No one can afford to isolate and protect themselves.

Covid in Venezuela

(AP Photo / Ariana Cubillos) - Photo: AP
In the case of healthcare workers, we are all exempt from quarantines. But our situation is deplorable. We do not even have a salary that allows us to live. we do not have the necessary supplies. We have no food. We can die infected because we do not have biosafety equipment. Today in Venezuela the handling of the pandemic has become very irresponsible.

The gap between what we earn and what we need to live is apocalyptic. Our salary is US $ 10 dollars when the minimum that is needed to achieve the basic basket is US $ 300. How do we continue? very simple: for the love of what we do. Many of us must leave hospitals to search for other trades. We are in solidarity, we have that social responsibility and that is why we do not resign. But many have to go to the informal economy after their long and arduous days, to sell potatoes to make cakes so they can bring bread home.

We have an overload of work to be able to finance our going to the hospitals, to buy a mask. Others, very few, who have families abroad receive something to be able to shovel. We ask for a sufficient salary. The vast majority of us are women who have to assume the maintenance of our homes.

Covid in Venezuela
(AP Photo / Matias Delacroix) - Photo: AP
The future does not look promising. Nobody even knows if there really is a national vaccination plan. We know that some Russian and some Chinese vaccines have arrived, but no more. Venezuela is also not given vaccines from the Covax mechanism because the country has a debt of millions with the Pan American Health Organization.

And health personnel have not been a priority in vaccination. That is why we see with great helplessness and a lot of anger how the environment of Mr. Nicolás Maduro says to the four winds that they were vaccinated. And he himself too. Who claims to lead Venezuela, when he is the first to be vaccinated and those who put the breast are denied?

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We also question the political and unscientific handling of the pandemic. In Venezuela there is a National Academy of Medicine. We have a demonstrated capacity in immunization plans, but today they are not taken into account. The one who claims to be president of Venezuela announces, instead, some magical goths for the Covid.

In the whole world the situation is serious, but in addition to the pandemic we must add the condition of extreme poverty, galloping hyperinflation, not having gasoline to reach hospitals. We are an oil-producing country, but you have to stand in line for six hours to fill up the car.