The Peruvian government has launched a campaign to create what is described as an "emotional shock" to persuade the population to stop the corona virus, reports the American NPR. 

The country has one of the worst outbreaks in Latin America and wants to prevent further death and misery, NPR states.

Peruvian President Martín Vizcarra supports the campaign "which may seem harsh", he says, adding: "We are at war ... You have to describe things as they are".

The "war", which Vizcarra talks about, is the result of the virus' painful and unexpected spread in the country, which has about 33 million inhabitants.

Peru has registered nearly 30,000 corona-related deaths, the highest number in Latin America after Brazil and Mexico.

Between 60 and 70 percent of all new infections occur in the capital Lima.

The actual death toll could even be higher than the official one, according to the British news agency Reuters.

Curfew

When the virus began to spread in Latin America in mid-March, the government was the first in the region to impose a general curfew.

The military was sent to the streets to check that it was followed.

The government decided on some financial support for the most vulnerable.

But the payments were made more difficult by the fact that a majority did not have a bank account.

And when the spread of the virus picked up, it became clear that the public health care targeted at the poor did not have enough capacity to catch the infected and treat all the sick.

Peru invests around 3 percent of GDP in health care, according to the latest available figures from the World Bank - one of the lowest shares in Latin America, and three times less than Sweden.

In addition, there has been a shortage of both oxygen, doctors and intensive care units.

The most difficult situation is for the indigenous people in rural areas and in the Amazon, where many have no access to conventional healthcare at all.

In one of the worst affected cities, Pucallpa, they have been forced to dig what looks like mass graves, TT states.

San Marino highest share

The mortality rate in covid-19 per capita in Peru is approaching one thousand registered cases per million inhabitants (937 at the end of the day), according to the figures that SVT Nyheter updates every day.

Only the small country of San Marino in Europe has a higher recorded death rate.