MEXICO CITY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th March, 2020) Vice President of Nicaragua Rosario Murillo has confirmed the first case of coronavirus infection in the Central American nation, imported from neighboring Panama.
According to Panamanian newspaper La Prensa, Murillo explained in a telephone conference that a 40-year-old man was placed in a special intensive care ward after testing positive for COVID-19 several days after returning from abroad.
"Anyone who has had contact with him, anyone in his family who has symptoms, will immediately proceed to take the sample to perform the test," Rosario told reporters on Wednesday.
The news comes shortly after nearby El Salvador registered its first case of the virus, leaving Belize the last Central American nation yet to register any cases of infection.
According to La Pensa, Nicaragua was one of the few regional nations to refrain from any precautionary measures against the virus, classes and businesses carried on and travel was not restricted in any way.
So much so that Nicaraguan authorities last week organized a mass rally in the capital city of Managua called "love in the time of COVID-19" which was attended by thousands.
La Prensa reported that only the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health has coronavirus test kits and that there is so far no information about the number of tests conducted.
