day, darío vivas died of covid-19 at the age of 70. february in february 2021, venezuela started vaccinating health care workers with the russian sputnik v covid-19 vaccine and started using a vaccine produced by the chinese company sinopharm. it aimed to vaccinate 70 percent of the population by the end of 2021. march in march 2021, juan guaidó and the opposition national assembly approved 30 million dollars to import oxford–astrazeneca vaccines. delcy rodríguez announced that permits for its use would not be conceded. venezuela decided not to approve use of the oxford–astrazeneca vaccine when several european countries suspended their vaccination programmes due to concerns over possible side-effects. october school children and university students started going back to their classes in october 2021. the government claimed that 56% of the population had been vaccinated but johns hopkins university reported that less than 22% of the population had been fully vaccinated. venezuelans could get vaccinated from the age of 11. measures executive response on 12 march, nicolás maduro declared a public health emergency in the country and suspended all inbound flights from europe and colombia for 30 days. he also announced that public gatherings were to be suspended and that the government would be evaluating whether or not to suspend flights from other regions in the coming weeks. according to maduro, there had been 30 suspected cases in venezuela, but these had all tested negative. after the first cases in the country were confirmed, vice-president delcy rodríguez instructed all passengers of the 5 march and 8 march flights of iberia 6673 to immediately enter into a mandatory preventive quarantine because two passengers tested positive. rodríguez announced that all classes would be suspended at public and private schools from monday 16 march until further notice, while néstor reverol announced that the government would provide border control authorities with face masks, gloves and thermometers, without mentioning supplies for citizens and hospitals. reverol also announced that the operational control of all the police forces would be transferred to the armed forces in order to coordinate the action and contingency plan. on 14 march, authorities arrested two people for spreading false information about the virus, recording a video about fake cases in los teques. sudeban, the government's department related to banks and financial institutions, announced the suspension of banking activities, effective from 16 march. defense minister vladimir padrino lópez announced that, effective from 16 march, the armed forces would control access to the six states and the capital district declared by nicolás maduro to be in quarantine. on 16 march, maduro reversed the country's official position against the international monetary fund (imf), asking the institution for us$5 billion to combat the pandemic, a first during maduro's presidency; he has been a critic of the institution. the imf also has had conflicts with the venezuelan government in the past, as maduro's predecessor hugo chávez had pledged to cut ties with the fund in 2007, and the imf suspended us$400 million in special drawing rights during the venezuelan presidential crisis in 2019. the imf rejected the deal as it was not clear, among its member states, on who it recognizes as venezuela's president, nicolás maduro or juan guaidó. according to a report by bloomberg, the maduro administration also tried to request aid of $1 billion from the imf after the first request was denied. on 19 march, rodríguez announced that 4,000 diagnosis kits were delivered from china to test for coronavirus disease. the government said that the chinese diagnosis kits would benefit 300,000 venezuelans and thanked the chinese government and president xi jinping for their generosity. in a separate measure, venezuela's inea maritime authority has prohibited crews aboard ships docking in the country's ports from disembarking. the same day, maduro announced that he had received a letter from the united nations (un) resident coordinator and united nations development programme (undp) resident representative peter grohmann, confirming that the organization "is ready to support the venezuelan government in its fight against covid-19." maduro stressed that the un has taken concrete actions, particularly in the areas of health and water, sanitation and hygiene, and "will support the ministry of health in the care and containment of the coronavirus." likewise, they will offer support in the disclosure of reliable and updated information. china provided a further one million rapid antigen test kits in march 2020. on 20 march, maduro said that russia was considering "a significant donation of special humanitarian aid" to the country, such as medical equipment and kits for the diagnosis of covid-19, which were expected to arrive by the following week. on 23 march, foreign minister jorge arreaza and russian ambassador sergei melik-bagdasarov announced that 10,000 diagnosis kits had been delivered from russia, with more to be supplied in future shipments. in a tweet, maduro thanked the russian government and president vladimir putin for their generosity and for standing in solidarity with the venezuelan people. maduro announced several economic measures on 23 march to deal with unemployment, the assumption of wage payment by the state, the suspension of rent and credit interests payments, the assignment of new bonds, the flexibility of new loans and credit, the prohibition of the cutting of telecommunication services and the guarantee of clap (local committees for supply and production) supplies. russian sputnik v vaccine in september 2020, maduro suggested administering the russian sputnik v covid-19 vaccine to the candidates in the upcoming legislative elections so that they could campaign safely. in october 2020, the venezuelan government received a shipment of the sputnik v vaccine. venezuela was the first country in latin america to participate in the sputnik v trial, which involved around 2000 venezuelan participants. in december 2020, the venezuelan government signed a contract to acquire enough doses of the sputnik v vaccine for 10 million people. doctors without borders the international aid group doctors without borders (msf) stopped operations in caracas in november 2020 due to government restrictions. about 150 doctors, that worked in petare, a poor neighborhood, risk to lose their jobs. maribelsi mancera, head nurse for msf, stated that they do not understand the government decision. miguel pizarro, venezuela's representative in the united nations, regretted the decision and criticized the government behavior against non governmental organizations trying to help with the crisis. national assembly response in march 2020, juan guaidó said that the country is experiencing one of the most serious health crises in its history, caused by the inaction of the maduro government, and announced a series of measures in order to take "responsible measures against the pandemic." these include the postponement of opposition protests and the creation of the special health commission. guaidó also called for the entry of humanitarian aid from the united nations, and said that health services are not impacted by international sanctions. the committee of electoral candidacies, in charge of appointing a new national electoral council (cne), announced that it would suspend its meetings because of the pandemic. julio castro, head of the special health commission appointed by juan guaidó, said on 16 march that face masks are a prevention measure useful only for one day, and that once used the mask loses its effectiveness and can become a source of infection; he also said that venezuelans have to take additional measures to deal with the pandemic. in march 2020, national assembly deputy jesús yánez announced that the government of taiwan donated 1,000 surgical masks as a measure to prevent the coronavirus pandemic. the masks were distributed in five stations of the caracas metro (plaza sucre, pérez bonalde, plaza venezuela, chacao and petare). yánez highlighted that the metro is a means of transportation used by a large part of the population and is a breeding ground for the pandemic due to the crowding of people in closed spaces, should any one of them be carrying the virus. in march 2020, guaidó's special health commission collected 3,500 protection kits for caregivers at five hospitals on 16 march. on 21 march, guaidó announced that he delivered medical kits to protect the health sector from the coronavirus pandemic. on his official twitter account, he shared a video expressing that "we are protecting a sector that today is giving everything: the health sector, our doctors and nurses. to support them is to support us all. we must bring this help to hundreds who need it", and concluded "we can contain this emergency. venezuela is in our hands." guaidó also announced the creation of the human rights observatory as a response to the increase of human rights violations in the country during the social isolation orders. guaidó called for the creation of a "national emergency government", not led by maduro, on 28 march. according to guaidó, a loan of us$1.2 billion was ready to be given in support of a power-sharing coalition between pro-maduro officials, the military and the opposition in order to fight the pandemic in venezuela. if accepted, the money would go to assist families affected by the disease and its economic consequences. juan guaidó announced a financial help to health workers during the pandemic supported by venezuelan funds frozen in the federal reserve bank of new york. in august 2020, opposition parties announced that the request had been granted by the united states department of the treasury. in the statement, an amount of 300 usd would be granted to 62,000 health workers, with us$100 a month starting 23 august 2020 for those registered. the resources were planned to be distributed through airtm, a digital payment platform, but after the announcement the access to the platform was blocked in venezuela. a manual to circumvent the internet block using a virtual private network (vpn) was published afterwards. an amount of us$4.5 million to support venezuelans at risk of death, was also announced. the "health heroes" program of guaidó is the first time that frozen funds in united states, as part of sanctions on venezuela, were directly transferred to venezuelan health workers. by november 2020, the second wave of payments were granted. joint response in june 2020, carlos alvarado, maduro's health minister and julio castro, representing juan guaidó and the national assembly, signed an unprecedent joint agreement with the world health organization and the pan american health organization. the accord seeks cooperation between maduro's government and the opposition deputies of the national assembly to handle the pandemic and seek funds. according to opposition lawmakers, maduro administration violated the agreement in january 2021, as resources and equipment to handle the pandemic were transferred to facilities controlled by maduro administration. other responses baltazar porras, apostolic administrator of caracas, announced the suspension of ecclesiastic activities on 15 march, while assuring that temples would remain open, asking venezuelans to avoid crowded places and to remain calm. the health ministry certified the microbiology laboratory of the university of the andes, in mérida state, to start carrying out tests to detect the presence of sars-cov-2, the coronavirus responsible for the covid-19 disease, on 18 march. once the necessary supplies are received, the laboratory will be able to perform up to 20 tests per day and would be the second laboratory in the country to perform detection tests after the national hygiene institute in caracas; it would be expected to carry out tests for the states of mérida, táchira, trujillo and barinas, and possibly other states in the west, as it is closer than the hygiene institute in caracas. three men that were playing dominoes outdoors during the quarantine were murdered on 21 march in the 23 de enero parish, in caracas, and two more were injured. according to neighbors and relatives, a dozen members of the colectivo tres raíces arrived while they were playing and were responsible for their deaths; the witnesses accused the colectivo members of being linked with iris varela, minister of popular power for the prison service, being linked to a cicpc officer, and of wearing faes and national police uniforms, announcing that they would protest as a response to the killings, in defiance of the quarantine. the colectivo denied the accusations of being related to the government or police, saying that the murders were instead motivated by revenge. on late march 2020, the colectivos tres raíces and la piedrita started imposing a paramilitary-enforced curfew in the 23 de enero parish, increasing repression and imposing closure times to businesses. reactions