At least 39 US states are reporting an increase in new cases this week
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has not been seen in public for more than a month, as the virus continues to sweep across Latin America.
Ortega’s last public appearance was on June 10 at a virtual conference regarding the post-pandemic economy with member countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America (ALBA).
There was a similar lengthy period of absence at the start of the pandemic, when Ortega spent more than 40 days out of the public eye. The government offered no explanation for that absence.
The government has reported nearly 100 deaths related to the novel coronavirus and 3,147 confirmed cases as of Thursday, though skepticism regarding the transparency of the data provided by the Ortega administration lingers, especially since the government controls all test information. The country’s population is estimated to be around 6.5 million, according to 2018 figures provided by the World Bank.
According to research from Nicaragua’s Covid-19 Citizen Observatory, an interdisciplinary monitoring group working to “fill the void of information about Covid-19 in Nicaragua,” at least 2,225 people have died from the virus. Confirmed cases in the country have reached at least 7,893, according to the group.
