(Bloomberg) -- Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega defended the nation's relatively relaxed measures for confronting the coronavirus pandemic, in his first public appearance in more than a month.
“If the country stops working, people die and the country dies,” Ortega said in his first appearance since March 12. “We have been adapting a series of measures according to international standards, but adapting them to our reality,”
Nicaraguans have continued to work and attend sporting events, in contrast to neighbors, which have closed borders to foreigners and ordered lockdowns.
The country has confirmed nine cases of the virus and one death. Vice-President Rosario Murillo, Ortega's wife, has encouraged participation in festivals and pro-government marches.
“Imagine if we isolate police, if we isolate the military, if we isolate farmers and they stop producing. The country will disappear,” said Ortega, a critic of the U.S. and an ally of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
The nation's hospitals have enough respirators and intensive care units to handle the outbreak and medicine stocks are 90% full, Ortega said.
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