AMERICA/PARAGUAY - Archbishop of Asunción appeals to pharmaceutical companies: "It is not the time to make money at the expense of the sick"

Monday, 19 April 2021 coronavirus   bishops   healthcare  

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Asunción (Agenzia Fides) - "This is not the time for speculation in order to earn money at the expense of the sick", said Archbishop Edmundo Valenzuela of Asunción in an interview with a local newspaper about the difficult situation in the country. The Archbishop addresses all Covid-19 patients with a message of hope and urges relatives not to lose faith in God. In the interview published yesterday with the newspaper "Ultima Hora", he asked priests, where possible, to go to the sick in the intensive care unit in order to give them strength in these critical moments. In this context, he asked the country's authorities and large international companies to make it possible to buy medicines that would help the sick and alleviate the anxiety of relatives. He asks the government to act quickly and decisively: "Unfortunately, targeted measures planned for this year have not been implemented, but it must be done because this pandemic will last until 2023", he stressed.
In view of the plight of many people, Archbishop Valenzuela laments: "In the past our social pastoral care was able to help many people with food and also with medicine, but it is not enough ... and this year we ran out of funds and it was not even enough for the medicines that we have should distribute among the poorest". For this reason, the Archbishop called on pharmaceutical companies in particular to "reduce the cost of medicines. This is not the time to speculate in order to make money at the expense of the sick. This is the moment of humanity, of sensitivity to the needy".
In the past few weeks, 1,500 to 2,500 new infections have been reported in Paraguay every day. Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 250,000 infected and 5,315 dead. (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 19/4/2021)


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