Venezuela president extends virus quarantine

Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro announced Sunday he will extend for the third consecutive week lockdown restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19 throughout the crisis-stricken South American nation. The additional seven-day extension comes after the country saw an increase of 70% of infections registered in the last seven days, authorities say.

Maduro indicated that the increase in positive cases is linked to the presence in 13 regions of the country of the new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, known as P1 and P2, which has its epicenter in Brazil. Maduro also took the opportunity to lash out again at Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, blaming him for the spread of the virus and variant first identified in Brazil, and suggesting the variant should be called the "Bolsonaro mutant".

In order to reduce the spread of the virus, from March 21 and at least until April 11, only essential services including around food, health, telecommunications and transportation, will remain open. In Venezuela 1,662 deaths have been confirmed and recorded with more than 166,100 positive confirmed cases, of which 1,786 were registered in the last 24 hours, the highest since the first two cases were detected on March 13, 2020. 

Image Credits: AP