LIMA – Peru’s presidential campaign race has more than doubled Covid-19 deaths, from nearly 70, 000 to 180, 000, making it the country with the highest fatality rate in the world and the fifth highest in terms of absolute numbers of deaths.
The government’s admission of the catastrophic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic came just six days before Peruvians are set to go to the polls in one of the most politically polarised elections in the country’s history.
In a second-round ballot on June 6, Pedro Castillo, a former teachers strike leader, will face Keiko Fujimori, leader of the Peruvian right and daughter of the former dictator Alberto Fujimori, who is serving prison sentences on charges related to corruption and police-state massacres. The crisis in Peru is mirrored throughout Latin America. The World Health Organisation’s emergencies chief Michael Ryan said on Tuesday that eight of the 10 countries reporting the highest Covid-19 mortality rates in the last week were in the region.
The president of Peru’s Medical Federation, Dr. Godofredo Talavera, told the BBC that the higher number came as no surprise and was a product of the breakdown of the country’s health care system and the policies of its government. – BBC.
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