LIMA | Peru crossed the threshold of 600,000 coronavirus contaminations on Monday, but the daily number of deaths is declining, announced the Ministry of Health.
• Read also: All developments in the COVID-19 pandemic
Peru had 600,438 cases of COVID-19 on Monday since the start of the epidemic, 6,122 more than the day before. A total of 150 new deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours, the lowest toll in two and a half months, bringing the total death toll to 27,813.
Argentina, meanwhile, hit its daily death record with 381 dead in 24 hours. The toll of the epidemic is 7,366 dead for 350,854 cases, mostly recorded in Buenos Aires.
Peru, which has 33 million inhabitants, is the third most bereaved country in Latin America by the epidemic, behind Brazil (115,309 dead) and Mexico (60,480 dead). Compared to its population, the country is the hardest hit on the subcontinent by COVID-19 with 839 deaths per million inhabitants.
Faced with the spread of the disease, which threatens to saturate the health system, the government has limited gatherings there and imposed a weekend curfew.
On Saturday evening, 13 people died in a stampede in a nightclub in Lima, trying to flee the police who came to enforce the curfew. Eleven of the thirteen victims were declared positive for the coronavirus, as well as 15 of the 23 people arrested during this raid.
Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra deplored the tragedy and expressed his “anger at the irresponsibility” of the managers of the nightclub, who had promoted the festive gathering on the social network.