Peru will reopen to visitors on October 15 several archaeological sites in the Andean region of Cuzco, closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, but it will be necessary to wait until November at best for Machu Picchu, announced the Minister of Culture.
“We have set up a route for the archaeological sites, respecting all the protocols, which allows us to confirm access to the sites from October 15,” Minister Alejandro Neyra said on Friday, during a visit to the city of Cuzco.
The archaeological sites of Sacsayhuamán, Pisac, Ollantaytambo, Chinchero, Moray, Pikillacta and Tipón will be reopened to the public with a strict health protocol, the minister said, stressing that this would help revive the local economy and tourism.
He said he hoped for the reopening of the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, Peru’s main tourist site, in November. This emblematic site has been closed to the public for 7 months and the state of health emergency declared on March 16 in the Andean country.
Peru, with a population of 33 million, is the third Latin American country in terms of deaths linked to Covid-19, behind Brazil and Mexico. The country has the highest death rate in the world relative to the number of its inhabitants.