The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was shown to have spread to Nicaragua when the first case, a Nicaraguan citizen who had returned to the country from Panama, was confirmed on .Ana Emilia Solis, the World Health Organization's representative in Nicaragua, has stated that when the Nicaraguan Government declared a sanitary alert due to the threat of COVID-19: "Nicaragua has been working according to [WHO] guidelines. It has been working hard on the enlistment of health services, strengthening epidemiological surveillance and has been working with the Community Health Network to identify possible cases that may occur at the community level"A delegation from the Pan American Health Organisation, the regional branch of the WHO visited the country in the second week of March to coordinate measures to protect against the virus. Alexander Florencio, a representative of the delegation, stated that "the best conditions are being prepared". Florencio added that "provisions being made [by the government] have incorporated all PAHO recommendations. Some critics of Daniel Ortega's government have claimed the government is downplaying the severity of the virus. An independent estimate claims the number of cases to be 4 times and the number of deaths 20 times  however the provenance of these figures is undocumented. Prior to the arrival of the virus in Nicaragua, a large public rally was organized by government supporters in solidarity with coronavirus victims in other countries; however, the event was criticized for lack of social distancing The opposition party grouping, the National Coalition, wrote a letter of complaint to the World Health Organisation, arguing that WHO representative Ana Emilia Solis should be promoting more extreme measures to fight the virus, despite Solis's advice being in line with WHO guidelines.