Lima (AFP)
Peru, the second most affected country in Latin America by the coronavirus pandemic behind Brazil, is facing a shortage of medical oxygen, recognized the Ministry of Health on Saturday.
The 9,500 patients hospitalized in the country led the Peruvian hospital system to the brink of collapse, in particular because of the lack of oxygen, which was decreed Thursday "strategic resource" by the authorities.
According to sources from the Ministry of Health, the country lacks some eight thousand bottles of medical oxygen, which cannot be produced by factories overwhelmed by demand.
The government has announced measures to supply oxygen cylinders as quickly as possible and to import them if necessary.
"Be careful, this is not the time to get sick. Today, even less than before, it is not the time to get sick, because our health system is very affected," said the press. the Minister of Health, Victor Zamora.
Some 190,000 cases of Covid-19 have been detected in the country. The official death toll is 5,301, an increase of 139 over the past 24 hours.
The country is in its 83rd day of compulsory confinement. It caused for four in ten Peruvians the total loss of their income, according to the Ipsos institute.
© 2020 AFP