Venezuela, Holding Returnees in Overcrowded Quarantine Centres- Group

A prominent human rights group and the Johns Hopkins University on Tuesday accused the Venezuelan authorities of holding returning citizens in overcrowded quarantine centres.
The Human Rights Watch group and the Johns Hopkins University’s Centres for Public Health and Human Rights and Humanitarian Health said in a press release that as many as 100,000 Venezuelan citizens have returned from neighbouring countries since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the press release, both organisations alleged that these returning citizens were held in overcrowded and unsanitary quarantine centres.
Kathleen Page, a faculty member of the Johns Hopkins centres, said in the press release that “sending returnees to overcrowded and unsanitary quarantine centres, where social distancing is impossible, is a recipe for spreading Covid-19″.
The rights group and the higher education institution also alleged that those who have protested against the conditions in the quarantine centres were threatened with arrest.
Since the start of the pandemic, public health officials in Venezuela have registered 83,756 cases of the coronavirus disease, resulting in 704 deaths.
On Monday, the South America country’s Ministry of Health confirmed 619 new positive tests.
Thousands of the roughly five million Venezuelans who have left the country since 2015 have attempted to return since the start of the pandemic.
This is because the economic opportunities in neighbouring countries have become scarce due to the coronavirus disease-related social distancing measures enforced by governments.