Source:
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/from-covid-disaster-to-steep-case-drop-pandemic-eases-in-peru-1.1465855
From Covid Disaster to Steep Case Drop, Pandemic Eases in Peru
John Quigley, Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- Despite one of the world’s highest Covid death rates -- or perhaps because of it -- Peru is seeing a sudden steep drop in new cases, leading a top government epidemiologist to predict a massive improvement in the coming weeks.
The specialist, Cesar Munayco, said by phone that the change seems attributable to two things: many of the country’s most vulnerable have already succumbed, and the rest of the population is so terrified that they’re taking precautions they had initially avoided.
“There’s been a change,” said Munayco, deputy director of Peru’s center for disease control and prevention. “Now, everyone is using face masks. Most people have seen relatives or friends die as the epidemic grew. A lot of people have already been infected, and now what we see is that curve is declining.”
The virus, which is still killing about 180 Peruvians a day, swept through large areas of Lima, home to 11 million, and other big cities, overwhelming hospitals. Those now most at risk are in less heavily populated and more rural areas.
New infections are suddenly falling. The data suggest the outbreak will be under control within weeks, Munayco said, even though the government ended stay-at-home restrictions in most of the country two weeks ago...