Doctors Without Borders ends virus care in Venezuela

The humanitarian aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Wednesday the organization is pulling out a hospital from one of most vulnerable and impoverished neighborhoods in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas.

The field hospital operates in the Petare neighborhood and is considered one of the best-equipped countries to treat COVID-19 patients.

Isaac Alcalde, MSF's general coordinator in Venezuela, said the decision came after government restrictions made their work impossible.

"After months of fighting to gain entrance for our international staff, we felt obligated to make a decision that none of us wanted or that will be positive for anybody," said Alcalde.

Before the virus struck, Venezuela struggled for years with an economic and political crisis that have left many public hospitals lacking basics like of water and sufficient staffing.

MSF rehabilitated the public hospital wing at the Perez de Leon II Hospital, and staffed with Venezuelan and international health workers.

Roughly 40 foreign professionals including doctors, nurses and technicians have been unable to get permits to work in Venezuela this year.

The organization said it needs a balance of international specialists on the ground to guarantee standards, and restrictions forced them to shut down its operations.

The group's team of 150 doctors, nurses psychologists and technicians have screened roughly 3,500 COVID-19 patients, mostly from the Petare neighborhood.

Doctors Without Borders, however, said it will maintain some programs at the hospital and at the 39 other projects it supports throughout the country.

Venezuela have claimed nearly 900 people died among the roughly 100,000 reported cases, although critics of the government say the figures are underreported.