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Venezuela’s Covid-19 death toll claims ‘not credible’, human rights group says

Venezuelan claims that fewer than a dozen people have died in the country from Covid-19 are nonsensical and likely dramatically underestimate the severity of the situation there, Human Rights Watch activists have claimed.

The South American country, which faced a historic economic depression even before the pandemic, reported its first Covid-19 cases on 13 March and has since confirmed 1,121 cases and 10 deaths.

Related: 'Mask, gown, gloves – none of that exists': Venezuela's coronavirus crisis

Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s authoritarian ruler, has imposed a strict lockdown and urged citizens to exercise “maximum discipline” to defeat the coronavirus.

But on Tuesday the New York-based human rights group questioned Venezuela’s official figures as it released a new report on the health crisis facing the Caribbean nation.

“We believe the figures and the statistics that the Venezuelan government is providing – Maduro’s statistics – are absolutely absurd and are not credible,” said José Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director at Human Rights Watch.

Kathleen Page, a physician from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine involved in the report, said she had interviewed Venezuelan health professionals who had “indicated that even when they see confirmed cases of Covid-19 they are not being reported in the epidemiological reports”.

The study is based on interviews with medical professionals in five Venezuelan states – Anzoátegui, Barinas, Bolívar, Lara and Zulia – and the capital, Caracas.

Page said Venezuela’s already collapsed health system was utterly unprepared for the coronavirus. When Covid-19 arrived in Venezuela, research showed:

  • A third of hospitals had no water supply and two-thirds only an intermittent supply.

  • 60% of hospitals reported shortages of gloves and face masks.

  • 76% of hospitals suffered soap shortages and 90% shortages of sanitizing gel.

“Under those conditions it is impossible to follow the basic guidelines to prevent hospital-acquired infections, which is hand-washing,” Page warned.

She added: “This is truly a critical situation that has profound implications for Venezuelans, for Venezuelan healthcare workers and really for the community at large because as we know, migration to and from Venezuelan continues to occur.”

Since Venezuela’s economic collapse began to accelerate in 2013, at least 4.5 million of its citizens have fled overseas, although a small number have started returning home because of mass unemployment caused by lockdowns in countries such as Colombia.

Related: Venezuelans return home as coronavirus piles more misery on migrants

Tamara Taraciuk Broner, Human Rights Watch’s deputy regional director, said she feared the political implications of the pandemic as well as its health impact.

“Covid has been the perfect excuse for the Venezuelan regime to crack down,” Taraciuk said. “What we are seeing now … is the detention and harassment of doctors, nurses, journalists.” She claimed the coronavirus was helping to accelerate Venezuela’s transformation into “something like a police state”.

Human Rights Watch called on the international community to fund UN humanitarian efforts in order to help Venezuelans through their latest crisis.