COVID-19 pandemic in Nicaragua
The COVID-19 pandemic in Nicaragua was a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus was shown to have spread to Nicaragua when the first case, a Nicaraguan citizen who had returned to the country from Panama, was confirmed on 18 March 2020.
| COVID-19 pandemic in Nicaragua | |
|---|---|
| Disease | COVID-19 |
| Virus strain | SARS-CoV-2 |
| Location | Nicaragua |
| Arrival date | 18 March 2020 (4 years, 1 month and 1 day) |
| Confirmed cases | 16,137 |
| Recovered | 15,399 |
Deaths | 245 |
| Government website | |
| https://www.el19digital.com/Coronavirus | |
According to official figures from the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health, after the first case was reported on 18 March 2020, very few cases were detected for the following 8 weeks until a significant increase in the number of cases began in May 2020.
Subsequently, from around mid-July 2020 the rate of new cases rapidly decreased, and as of January 2021, the country as a whole is showing one of the lowest number of cases in Latin America.
However, opposition leaders have criticized the government's approach to controlling the pandemic, and an organisation called Citizens Observatory has stated that the figures are significantly higher, particularly the number of deaths.