A number of publications last week referred to information leaked by Anonymous who hacked internal documents of the Ministry of Health, confirming what is widely believed in Nicaragua, i.e. that the Ministry of Health was concealing information about the impact of COVID-19 on Nicaragua. In fact the MINSA data released by Anonymous showed that the much higher numbers published by the Citizen Observatory provide a much more accurate picture of COVID in Nicaragua, even though those figures also underestimate its impact.
Leak of MINSA data shows that Nicaragua has more than 9,000 positive cases of COVID-19
This data reflects the concealment of MINSA of the true impact of the pandemic on the country, given that up to August 18 they stated that there were 4,311 cases of infection in Nicaragua.
Published by Lidia López B. in La Prensa, August 19, 2020
From February 28 to July 24, 2020 in Nicaragua 17,284 tests had been done to detect COVID-19, of which 9,683 ended up being positive, as revealed by a preliminary analysis presented this Wednesday by the independent physician Álvaro Ramírez, a specialist in Epidemiology, in collaboration with the Blue and White National Unity.
These numbers show the concealment of the Ministry of Health (MINSA) of the true impact of the pandemic in the country. Up until August 18 MINSA stated that the country only had 4,311 people infected and 133 deaths.
This data reflects the fact that Nicaragua is the country in the Central America region that has done the least amount of testing to detect COVID-19 and thereby, the one with less knowledge and control over the reality of the health crisis in the country. Dr. Ramírez highlighted that Nicaragua only compares to Haiti in this regard. For example, Honduras has done more than 123,000 test, Guatemala more than 200,000, Costa Rica more than 123,000 and El Salvador more than 285,000.
“Obviously this (test data) is way under what would be expected that a country should be doing. Nicaragua only compares with Haiti that has done 20,000 tests, and the country has 17,000 by July, so this is way under what a sampling would mean for public health actions in protection of the citizenry,” highlighted the specialist.
The data, as they stated in the presentation, were taken from MINSA reports leaked by Anonymous – organization of cyber-activists who are engaged in hacking data in the virtual sphere to reveal information to the public or feed social causes with which they identify. “Anonymous published this database, we had access to it and we proceeded to work on it and try to identify. There were many typing errors and data missing,” declared Dr. Ramírez, who confessed that along with some colleagues in Ireland they spent more than 150 hours in analyzing and verifying the data.
MINSA has daily reports
The documents leaked by Anonymous also reveal that MINSA reports daily how many COVID 19 tests are done in the country, and this information goes as high as the presidency. Nevertheless, MINSA weekly presents a brief report where it points out new cases and deaths, and the supposed accumulation of the data that the country records.
Last July 21 MINSA publicly reported 3,439 cases in total, and 108 deaths, but the leaked report revealed that by July 24 there were 9,683 positive cases.
Dr. Ramírez said that he has already prepared a report on this data that he will turn over to the Panamerican Health Organization (PAHO) so they can validate the numbers. “We have a record that we are going to turn over to the PAHO, exactly about how we were able to have this refined database…the data from the Ministry of Health were there, the data was daily arriving in the President´s office,” he emphasized.
On several occasions the PAHO has reported that it has requested an official report from the Government of Nicaragua to analyze the situation of the country, and offer recommendations relevant to the health crisis, but up to now the government has not responded to that request.
More data revealed
Other data also revealed are that the people most affected are between the ages of 30-60. Likewise, it shows that in the period from February to July, 23 infants less than a year old tested positive. Among the most common symptoms that the patients presented were: dry cough, fever, sore throat and breathing difficulties.
Managua is the place where the majority of the positive cases are registered (4,238), then Masaya (757), Chinandega (711) and León (509). MINSA also registered cases in the Caribbean Coast, where the indigenous communities have denounced the abandonment on the part of the regional authorities.