In a short message on X, the medical institution informed the population that “those news were fake.”

It suggested consulting the Bolivarian Government’s official channels to be informed “correctly.”

The text includes two photos with an alleged press release from the “Rafael Range” National Institute of Hygiene, in which the board of directors and the institution’s president recommended “wearing facemasks.”

In another text, an alleged Regulation with the logos of the Ministry of Health, the Barrio Adentro Mission, and the University of Medical Sciences, signed by the head of the Integrated Community Health Areas (ASIC), reported that there is an increase in patients with respiratory syndrome “associated with a new wave of Covid-19.”

The fake document recommends the mandatory resumption of “sanitary and preventive measures,” such as avoiding crowds in all ASIC facilities. World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged people to continue to wear facemasks and to get vaccinated, due to an increase in respiratory diseases caused by Covid-19, influenza, and other pathogens.

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