How Peru became the country with the highest COVID death rate in the world
With 200,000 COVID deaths in a population of less than 33 million, the impact of the pandemic in Peru has been particularly devastating: the country has the highest COVID death rate per head of population worldwide. It's also estimated to have one of the world's worst rates of children being orphaned or bereft of their caregivers due to COVID.
Yet, compared to many other countries, on paper Peru was relatively well-placed to handle COVID. It is an upper-middle-income country - and before COVID had been performing well economically. Life expectancy had been rising and poverty falling, and it had been making good progress on improving public health, with access to healthcare increasing.
Peru was also one of the first Latin American countries to demand that people stay at home to stop the virus spreading. Unlike in some other badly affected Latin American countries, such as Brazil or Mexico, authorities in Peru didn't deny the threat of the pandemic.
So how has it still ended up in such a bad situation?
Not built for lockdown
On March 15 2020, with 28 confirmed cases and no reported deaths, the Peruvian government declared a nationwide state of emergency. This quickly introduced a series of strong control measures, which included closing borders, restricting freedom of movement nationwide and banning crowds from gathering. Schools, universities and churches were closed. In general, all non-essential activities or services were restricted, including non-emergency primary healthcare.
Read more: https://www.caribbeannews.net/news/271740562/how-peru-became-the-country-with-the-highest-covid-death-rate-in-the-world