President Daniel Ortega’s increasingly authoritarian government seems more focused on hiding the COVID-19 outbreak than treating it
In this May 11, 2020, file photo, a medical worker wears a mask and face shield at the entrance of the SERMESA hospital in Managua, Nicaragua.Inside Nicaragua’s public hospitals, the walls are plastered with political propaganda, ruling-party activists ensure no information leaks out, and doctors were once forbidden from wearing masks.
Frightened that the government’s attempts to deny the severity of the outbreak would doom many in this Central American country, 600 medical workers signed an open letter in May asking for protective equipment in public hospitals. Within weeks, more than a dozen were fired. Relatives of people who were hospitalized have described “express burials,” performed by men in full-body protective gear – even as officials denied the deceased had COVID-19.Doctors have confirmed the relatives’ suspicions, saying hospital administrators order virus deaths be categorized otherwise to keep official numbers low.
Health workers are being squeezed on all sides, said Rojas, who used to work at the Bertha Calderón Hospital for Women, also in Managua.
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