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Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Border Crossings

As of today, April 9th, Nicaragua has 6 confirmed cases of the Coronavirus (1 recovered, 1 death, and 4 active), but the fear is that the cases might sky-rocket because Costa Rica closed its borders, ignoring the World Health Organization’s suggestion to NOT close borders.

 How does Costa Rica closing its borders affect Nicaragua? 

This is how…

Nicaragua’s Ministry of Health is monitoring everyone that comes into Nicaragua from the outside.
  • They have thermal scans set up at borders, 
  • they give out questionnaires to people coming into the country and 
  • they follow up with the people who just came in to see if they are feeling poorly.  
They cannot do that if hundreds of Nicaraguans are returning home from Costa Rica (which has 454 confirmed cases) by wading across the San Juan River, because the border is closed.

Many Nicaraguans work in Costa Rica doing menial jobs that the Costa Ricans don’t want to do.  Sound familiar?  Now Costa Rican businesses are closing and they have no work, so Nicaraguans are coming home… but they cannot cross at the border.  Nicaragua is open… just Costa Rica is not, so instead, returnees leave Costa Rica by crossing the river and the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health has no way to monitor them.

remote area of Rio San Juan


Nicaragua is poor.  Washing hands is difficult if you can’t afford hand sanitizer or an abundance of soap.  Social distancing is hard when 10 or more people live in a tiny house and now with the temperatures in the high 90s, people have to go outside and sit in the shade or die of heatstroke.  This season is our hottest time of the year.   Most Nicaraguans cannot take their own temperature because they can’t afford thermometers.  The only chance Nicaragua has of avoiding a complete disaster is by catching cases of COVID-19 early and stopping the spread.

believing in prevention - rural hand-washing station

With the U.S. sanctions on Nicaragua, Nicaragua is having troubles obtaining Personal Protective Equipment for its health care workers, let alone for all those vendors and shoppers in markets, stores, and street-corner one-room shops.

Each and every day  as this virus progresses,  I feel such disgust at nations that do not listen to the World Health Organization and won’t follow the WHO’s suggestions.    I wish the U.S. and Costa Rica would lend the poorer countries like Nicaragua just a little help like Cuba and China are doing, or - at least - give Nicaragua a break.

Because we ARE all in this together.   Rich and poor alike.

-Kathleen 

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