Venezuela Coronavirus Update: Human Rights Watch Finds Nation's Claim Of Only 10 Deaths From COVID-19 ‘Not Credible’

Since reporting its first COVID-19 case, the South American country, Venezuela has confirmed only 1,121 cases and 10 deaths.

While many would view this as a positive development given the high death tolls in countries like the U.K. and Brazil, Venezuela has been stuck in an economic depression that would have only served to rake up the coronavirus cases. Thus, the Human Rights Watch Activists have aired their misgiving over the data shared by the nation.

Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro has implemented some strict social distancing rules, including a nationwide lockdown, and urged citizens to observe “maximum discipline” so as to have the highest chance of fighting the pandemic. But despite it all, the official figures provided by the nation, given its financially shaky foundation, appears to be a lot less than what probably is a rather high death toll.

“We believe the figures and the statistics that the Venezuelan government is providing -- Maduro’s statistics -- are absolutely absurd and are not credible,” said José Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director at Human Rights Watch.

In a report shared by the New York-based human rights group, Kathleen Page, a physician from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine shared that she had interviewed Venezuelan health professionals in five states -- Anzoátegui, Barinas, Bolívar, Lara and Zulia.

They gave her information about the true COVID-19 scenario in Venezuela and “indicated that even when they see confirmed cases of Covid-19 they are not being reported in the epidemiological reports.”

The medical professionals shared that Venezuela’s crumbling health system was not ready when the pandemic hit it. As per Page’s research, at least a third of hospitals were grappling with no water supply while two-thirds only had an intermittent supply. There was a high shortage of gloves, face masks, soap shortages and sanitizing gel.

“Under those conditions it is impossible to follow the basic guidelines to prevent hospital-acquired infections, which is hand-washing,” Page warned. “This is truly a critical situation that has profound implications for Venezuelans, for Venezuelan healthcare workers and really for the community at large because as we know, migration to and from Venezuelan continues to occur.”