Coronavirus: Peru holds the record for the highest mortality in the world

(illustration) Mourning family around the coffin of a loved one who died of Covid-19, Lima, August 24, 2020. REUTERS / Sebastian Castaneda

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Peru has just broken a sad record. A recent downward revision in the number of victims of the Covid-19 pandemic in Belgium has made Peru the country with the highest death rate in the world.

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with our regional correspondent, Eric Samson

It is only a question of decimals but the symbol is strong ... After having removed 121 names from its death toll of the pandemic, Belgium has a rate of 85.5 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. After another day marked by the death of 123 people and more than 6,000 new cases of contagion, Peru has reached 85.8 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, or 0.3 more than Belgium.

On Thursday, many experts and doctors followed one another in the Peruvian media to put this bad result into perspective. For many, the comparison between countries does not really make sense because the numbers of victims are not always obtained in the same way. Still, the symbol is strong, especially as Peru recognizes the existence of 10,000 additional deaths, the cause of death of which is under investigation.

In a press conference, the vice-rector of the Peruvian Medical College, Ciro Maguiña, pointed out that this negative record is the product of "  artificial economic growth  " and this informal Peru that no one has ever really tried to change. .

With officially 28,124 fatal victims and nearly 622,000 recorded cases, the pandemic has severely affected Peru where more than 13,000 patients are still hospitalized. 

 To read also : In Peru, distraught, the nursing staff begins a strike of 48 hours

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  • Coronavirus
  • Peru
  • Health and medicine

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