Category Archives: Coronavirus

An unexpected press conference just concluded from two members of Peru’s Council of Ministers discussing measures in the fight against COVID-19 in light of the soaring number of deaths being reported each day including a record 433 deaths across the country on Saturday. April is currently seeing an average of 298 deaths a day. (See the charts below for the most up-to-date data for Peru and the Cusco region.)

Minister of Production, José Luis Chicoma opened by saying that “65,194 senior citizens in Lima and Callao received the first dose of the vaccine against COVID-19….More than 85,000 policemen have been vaccinated against COVID-19…and about 3,000 members of the General Volunteer Fire Brigade have also been vaccinated.”

Next Alejandro Neyra, Minister of Culture noted that “nearly 80% of Bono 600 households have [received] the payment” to help with current financial difficulties during the pandemic.

Neyra continued by saying that “so far this year there have been more than 582,000 police interventions for disrespecting sanitary restrictions and more than 12,000 COVID parties have been closed down.”

“We are in Latin America suffering this impact of the pandemic probably as a result of the variants that exist here,” said Neyra. “The Brazilian variant probably causes a greater number of infections.”

He also said that the scientific community does not advise the implementation of total confinements and that the Executive is constantly evaluating the measures in order to have “some that can help us more.”

“The only possible solution for a gradual exit from the pandemic is vaccination, so all the Government’s efforts are focused in that direction”, he added.

Neyra concluded by saying that “In our case we have to evaluate the possibility of some closures. It is clear that the possibility of entering a total quarantine or absolute confinement is not part of the measures we can take in these circumstances, also taking into account the economic conditions in which we find ourselves.”

Earlier, the dean of the Peruvian Medical Association (CMP), Miguel Palacios, said that registering 433 deaths in the last 24 hours due to COVID-19 shows that the Government’s strategies have been failing.

In an interview with RPP’s Ampliación de Noticias program, Palacios described as “terrifying figures” the number of deaths in the country due to the pandemic and said that this represents 38% of the total number reported by the National Informatics System of Deaths (Sinadef).

“We believe that to reach this level is a confession that the strategies we have had throughout all this time have been failing. In such a way, that if there are no new strategies we will continue with the same results,” he said. “We believe that it is time to give some alternatives and some solutions. The population as we see is still not assimilating this reality that COVID-19 is making hundreds of Peruvians seriously ill and ends up losing their lives.”

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The Cusco province will continue for another three weeks under the government’s Extreme Risk Level designation, but starting Monday four more provinces will be included under this highest level until May 9: La Convención, Quispicanchi, Anta, and Urubamba.

The reason for this is clear as positivity rates of testing have been hovering at or considerably above 20% for a week now and are currently at record highs. That means that more than 1 in 5 people who are tested are found to be infected with COVID-19.

The average number of deaths per day in the region has seen a very slight drop, but with so many people becoming infected this number is likely to begin to rise again. And this number is still a much higher than last year.

According to Cusco’s Regional Health Management (Geresa), 1,386 people have died due to COVID in the first three and a half months of 2021. That is more than all of 2020 when there were 1,321 total COVID-related deaths.

According to Geresa, Cusco is the most affected province with 551 deaths, followed by Canchis (148), La Convención (146) , Quispicanchi (96), Anta (76) and Urubamba (75).

La Republica reported this morning that Cusco’s Regional Government will be implementing a new strategy in the vaccination plan and on Monday will meet with national authorities for the distribution of more vaccines.

The regional governor, Jean Paul Benavente reported that Peru’s Ministry of Health (Minsa) will prioritize the region for the provision of sufficient doses, mainly Pfizer, in order to conclude the inoculation of older adults over 60 years of age.

They hope a fast and effective plan will be implemented in the next four weeks. In a first stage, the immunization of adults over 80 years of age will be completed with an average of 54,000 doses. This will be immediately followed by the vaccination of 165,000 adults aged 70 and 60 years.

Sadly, there are still a number of foreigners and tourists in the region actively promoting anti-mask, anti-distancing, and anti-vaccine information based completely on false data anad fake science. (Sorry, but clickbait YouTube videos aren’t science.)

Even more disturbing is the number of foreign-owned businesses actively pushing false information on social media that will result in more innocent people dying. It appears the motivation is strictly so they can make money without any concern for the people in the country which has allowed them to immigrate.

People in Cusco seem to be following mask mandates almost 100% now, but the number of foreigners and tourists I’ve seen walking around without masks is amazing. The lack of respect for other human beings’ lives is very, very hard to fathom.

[NOTE: the latest information for Peru overall will be reported sometime later today so I’ll be doing a report on COVID in Peru through the middle of April tonight or (more likely) tomorrow morning.]

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At almost the same time as last night’s press conference from the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers was beginning, the Ministry of Health released the latest data on the COVID situation in Peru.

Assuming the Council of Ministers had already seen this data, I was quite shocked that they made absolutely no changes in the restrictions across the country. None. People are dying in Peru at a rate that far exceeds any point since the pandemic began nearly 13 months ago, but they appear to have their heads in the sand for reasons unknown.

HOSPITALIZATIONS

On March 31, Minsa dropped the reported number of COVID hospitalizations by over 2,000 without ever giving an explanation. Apparently they considered the numbers a correction rather than a reporting error as there were no more corrections.

Since that time, the number of hospitalizations rose steadily again until the past two days when there were significant drops reported. Frankly, this isn’t normal, but there’s no explanation for what’s going on. It’s possible that the issues are due to reporting problems at the local and regional level, but it would be nice if Minsa would explain.

ICU CARE

Minsa also reported a huge decrease in the number of people reported in ICU units across the country on March 31, but those numbers appeared to be corrected the following day. The numbers continued to rise slowly as more ICU units have been added, but those number dropped a lot over the past two days for regions unexplained — something not very likely given reports from across the country of full ICU units and people waiting to get a bed.

POSITIVITY RATES

Peru continues to test at rates far higher than during the first wave. While positivity rates were climbing quickly again over the past week, the last 3 days have shown a drop-off. While that’s too short a time to see a trend, it’s still encouraging and hopefully it will prove to be a trend in the next week.

DEATHS

I saved the worst for last — and it’s is very, very frightening. Right now Peru is seeing far more COVID related deaths than at any point in the past 13 months.

In the first seven days of April, there have already been more deaths than in each of the months of November and December. There has been an average of 259.7 deaths a day — that’s a 32% increase over the previous worst month (February) since the pandemic began.

Just how dramatic is the increase in deaths recently is even more clear when you look at how things have gone since June 6 when Minsa got a handle on its data reporting.

With the Brazilian P.1. variant becoming more prevalent across the country — and possibly already is the most prevalent — it’s likely that all these numbers will continue to climb.

RELATED POSTS

• New Restrictions and Designations That Go Into Effect on Monday
• COVID Update in Cusco Through the First Week of April
• Prevalence of COVID Variants in Peru
• Cajamarca Suffering from Increased Prevalence of COVID Variants
• What Is Known About the Brazilian P.1 COVID Variant

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Peru’s Prime Minister, Violeta Bermudez, and the Council of Ministers just concluded a press conference in which they announced an extension of of measures in the country’s fight against COVID-19.

Bermudez opened by talking about the effects of the pandemic and how the government has responded.

“The number of people killed by covid-19 has been extremely hard…We have set as a goal that by July we will have 200 oxygen plants…By the end of the month we will add 458 additional ICU beds…When we started government management, we did not find a single vaccine and today we can say that we have secured 48 million doses.”

“At the beginning of the pandemic there were only nine operational oxygen plants,” said Bermudez. “When we took office, we found 63 oxygen plants and today we have 169 plants. In July we will have more than 200.”

“At this time when we see worrying figures, we call on local governments to continue strengthening their control of gauging,” she continued. “We have agreed to extend the measures in force until Sunday, April 18.“

“In the last 4 months of management,” said Bermudez, “we have made progress in focusing restrictive measures, making a permanent balance between health care and the economy of families. We have gone from general to territorial and provincial measures.”

Below are the risk levels designations in place now that will continue for one more week. (Obviously, ignore the dates on these charts. They will now continue through April 18.)

She said that from now on the government will do the risk level classification every three weeks.

The only difference will be this Sunday (April 11) when “we will be able to circulate without restrictions to exercise our right to vote. The curfew will be from 11 p.m.”

With the Presidential and Congressional elections in 3 days, Minister of Interior, Jose Elice, said that “the National Police, during the electoral process, will deploy around 96,000 troops nationwide.”

Health Minister Óscar Ugarte announced that “voting hours have been extended from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. — 4 more hours to ensure that people do not crowd…What is being done in Peru for the elections is to apply the most appropriate measures based on the experiences of other countries.”

[NOTE: I’ll be posting an update on COVID data through the first week in April tomorrow morning. Based on the data, the extension of the current rules without any modifications comes as a big surprise. More tomorrow…]

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I had intended to stop writing COVID updates so frequently, but the recent dramatic rise in cases and resulting deaths has me more concerned than at any point in the past 13 months.

ICU units in the hospitals in the Cusco region have been full for a long time. Obviously, the Brazilian P.1 variant of COVID has become much more prevalent here as positivity rates are skyrocketing. Deeply concerning is the increase in the severity of cases involving young adults and even children throughout the region.

Data released by Peru’s National Institute of Health (INS) showed that 70% of a small sample of cases in the region were of the Brazilian P.1 variant. This highly transmissible variant also appears to affect children and younger people much more and can re-infect those who have previously been infected.

Also, with new announcements coming out within the next 48 hours regarding the new regulations for the region, this is the data that the Council of Ministers and the government will be looking at when determining what restrictions to place on Cusco.

POSITIVITY RATE

While there are signs that positivity rates of testing have leveled off for a few days, the number is still extremely high. Over the past week, about one in five people tested have been found to be infected. (Next time you’re on a bus with 20 people, look around. It’s likely that four of them currently are infected with COVID.)

DEATHS

The number of deaths per day has risen almost 50% in less than two weeks and is 14 times higher than only three months ago.

Tomorrow morning I’ll do an update for the first week overall in Peru. (The most recent data won’t be released until tonight.) There’s still no indication if the Council of Ministers will be meeting today or tomorrow to discuss what will come next. Obviously, the country is focused on the Presidential and Congressional elections this Sunday, but with the current restriction expiring on Monday an announcement is imminent.

I’m also doing a LOT more updates on Twitter right now than here, so if you want even more information than on my blog, you can follow me at https://twitter.com/ExploreCusco.

RELATED POSTS

• COVID Update for Cusco Through March
• COVID Update in Peru Through March
• COVID in Peru After One Year
• COVID-19 in Peru is Starting to Look Very Bad Again
• Update on COVID Data in Peru

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Last night Peru’s Instituto Nacional de Salud (National Institute of Health) released data on the latest small study of how the various COVID variants are affecting different regions.

The sample size was only 579 taken during February and March and should be taken as an overall guide, not as an exact gauge of where the variations are most prevalent.

For example, only 8.1% of Loreto’s 79 samples were of the Brazilian P.1 variant. Thanks to it’s proximity to the Brazil and the porous borders combined with the attitude of Loretanos towards mask-wearing and social distancing, that number is certainly exponentially higher as evidenced by the current surge in COVID there.

Related Posts

• Brazilian COVID Variant May Soon Become Dominant Strain in Peru
• Latest COVID Data Show Some Signs of Leveling Off
• Cajamarca Suffering from Increased Prevalence of COVID Variants
• Bad Signs for COVID in Peru

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