Vice president Delcy Rodriguez announced today that health authorities had only detected one new case of COVID-19 in the country, bringing the total number of cases in Venezuela to 166. Rodriguez, who heads the country’s virus response team, said that the infected person is the sibling of another individual who also tested positive for COVID-19.
During today’s press conference, Rodriguez fought back a small coughing fit through her mask. As she lost control and began to cough, the television camera turned away from her as she said “Excuse me, I have really bad allergies”:
During the same press conference, Maduro said that the country should hospitalize every individual who is confirmed to have COVID-19. Maduro said:
Under this current situation it’s possible to hospitalize all cases. It’s not the same being in a hospital than being in a home were you can infect your relatives. We have 23,500 [hospital] beds. They should follow the order, and hospitalize 100% of the cases that we have… I want everyone who is infected to be hospitalized at midnight.
The move could prove disastrous given that some individuals who test positive for COVID-19 have only minor or mild symptoms, and introducing them into a hospital setting alongside individuals who are recovering from serious illnesses or otherwise have compromised immune systems might cause outbreaks to occur.
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