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Peru resumes confinement to avoid a collapse of the health system

2021-01-28T15:28:32.224Z


The Government announces 15 days of quarantine in the most affected regions and a subsidy of 164 dollars to 4.2 million households


Relatives of a victim of covid-19 pray in the general cemetery of Huánuco, north of Lima, on January 26.OSCAR ROSARIO / AFP

Peru returns to confinement.

The interim president, Francisco Sagasti, announced on Tuesday night a 15-day quarantine starting next Monday in nine regions - including the port of Callao and Metropolitan Lima - declared at extreme risk due to the coronavirus pandemic.

To avoid an overflow of the health system, the Government has resumed the measures that it had implemented in the first wave, such as the prohibition of land or air transport in those jurisdictions and the restriction of economic activities.

As of Tuesday, the country reported 1,113,970 infections and 40,272 deaths from covid-19.

Opinions are divided regarding the new confinement.

Some regret that they will be out of work again because only essential activities will be authorized, while others see the confinement as the only way to face the increase in cases of the second wave of covid-19 that, according to the Prime Minister, Violeta Bermúdez, is they shot last weekend.

The permitted activities are those related to the supply of food, banking, health, agriculture, mining, and part of manufacturing, commerce and construction.

Health Minister Pilar Mazzetti announced on January 12 that Peru had gone from facing an outbreak to facing the second wave.

At that time, doctors were already claiming a lack of personnel and intensive care beds in at least four regions: Huánuco, Arequipa, Ayacucho and Huancavelica.

Hundreds of citizens on Twitter begged for help to find intensive care spaces for their relatives, especially in the capital, a situation that still remains.

The president of the Peruvian Society of Intensive Care Medicine, Jesús Valverde, estimates that the deficit of intensive care units is 1,300 beds, in addition to the shortage of specialized personnel, which is not even enough to serve the 1,800 existing beds.

Bermúdez reported that the Government has approved to provide a subsidy of 164 dollars to 4.2 million households "in a situation of vulnerability" in the nine regions declared at extreme risk -Ancash, Apurímac, Callao, Huánuco, Huancavelica, Ica, Junín, Lima and Pasco.

However, the authorities still do not know when they will start paying it.

The delivery of the subsidies to face the quarantine during 2020 was one of the sources of contagion of the new coronavirus, especially in the territories of the Amazonian indigenous peoples.

Peru went through confinement between March and June 2020, which translated into a 30% contraction of its economy in the second quarter alone, the worst record in its history.

In that period, more than 6.7 million people were unemployed.

Before the pandemic, 70% of the workforce in Peru was informal, a figure that has not been updated after the pandemic hit.

In the second week of January, when the numbers of contagions and daily deaths were similar to the worst moments of the first wave, some regional governors asked the Government to decree localized quarantines, but this did not happen.

The Minister of Economy, Waldo Mendoza, argued that it was a reappearance and did not see necessary "such extreme" measures.

President Sagasti, neither.

The economic cost of the 2020 lockdown has had a traumatic effect.

Limit situation

Minister Mendoza reconsidered his position on Wednesday.

“The measures are going to have an impact, but at this moment we have considered that to protect health we must make a macroeconomic sacrifice.

There will be a small downturn in February, but the strength of the Peruvian economy is not in question, "he said at a press conference.

In the nine regions at extreme risk, those who do not work in activities considered essential will only be able to go shopping or physical activity for one hour.

Minister Bermúdez reported in a television newscast that those who violate the measures will be held in a municipal facility until the morning of the following day, and will not have the right to carry out procedures in the State or receive a subsidy.

Bermúdez added that the Executive has coordinated with the municipal governments to "pay special attention to the common pots and soup kitchens," the two ways in which Peruvians are alleviating hunger since the economic coup last year.

"We have reached an extreme situation," he added.

Although Peru signed a contract in January with the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm, there is still no date for the arrival of the first batch of vaccines.

UPDATE |

This is the situation of # COVID19 in Peru until 10:00 p.m. on January 25.

# PeruEstInOurHands.



More information: https://t.co/mMDYhGqFt4 pic.twitter.com/et1WhGaDlp

- Ministry of Health (@Minsa_Peru) January 27, 2021


Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-01-28

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