By Ruth Lara Castillo.
On August 19, Jorge Perez, spokesman for the Doctors United for Venezuela in Carabobo, requested protective equipment for health workers, who are on the front line of attack against COVID-19 and lack supplies to keep them safe.
Venezuela is experiencing a spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths, as 50% of all the 36,868 present cases were added just over the last three weeks.
You must read Venezuela: 32 doctors have died of coronavirus between June and August
Health-care personnel, including doctors and nurses, represent about a quarter of the 300-plus deaths recorded so far, a disproportionate statistic result that regime critics ascribe to lack of protective gear.
In a telephone interview with El Pitazo, Perez said that biosecurity equipment must be guaranteed not only for medical and nursing staff, but also for bioanalysts, stretcher-bearers, and health workers who remain in the emergency areas designated for COVID-19.
The expert also denounced that decision of the Maduro regime to centralize Coronavirus testing in just two facilities (one in the capital and one in the border near Colombia), forbidding private clinics and even other hospitals from carrying out tests, has resulted in delays in testing and diagnosis.
“We see with concern how the cases have increased in Carabobo, and we see with pain the deaths of many colleagues and health workers that have not even reported,” the doctor said.
The spokesman called on the authorities and society to help the front line: “It is the specialist doctors and residents who are on the front line of attack against the disease; we cannot leave them alone. If the front line falls, the people will fall because we will have no one to assist us in the hospitals,” he said.
