Venezuela has been one of the most with the greatest success in combatting the Covid-19 pandemic. They have done better than other countries on the South American continent, and better than North America, Europe, Australian many other places. There have been far fewer deaths. Meanwhile Brazil on one side, and Colombia on the other, are the worst affected. This is remarkable, given the blockade being waged against Venezuela by the United Sates. And the resulting critical shortage of medicine. They did get some thanks to generous donations form Cuba and China. Then the United States set a naval armada to stop more coming in. It is still there. What is the secret? Early action, voluntary lock down and isolation, house to house mass tasting, mobilisation of the population and generous social subsidies.

Video from Tim Anderson

Nicolas Maduro explains the strategy of #Venezuela in face of #COVID19 – voluntary quarantine, mass testing and contact tracing, guaranteed treatment, social subsidies – but look at how they do it. One of the lowest rates of death in Latin America.

Posted by Tim Anderson on Monday, April 20, 2020