COVID crisis in Peru so massive that everyone know someone who died of virus

As the world watches with horror as the number of coronavirus cases explodes in India, another intense outbreak - on a much smaller scale - is taking place in Peru, which is on top of the global death toll per capita. The Andean nation has registered more than 4,000 surpluses per million inhabitants since the start of the pandemic, or more than 166,815 deaths, according to the Financial Times, an increase of 123 percent compared to the historical average.

Excessive deaths are considered more accurate than the official figure of the Peruvian Ministry of Health of 62,126 confirmed deaths associated with the coronavirus.

"Almost all Peruvians know someone who died of COVID," said Cesar Carcamo, an epidemiologist at Cayetano Heredia University, Peru's leading medical school. The country is also experiencing its deadliest period since the novel's coronavirus for the first time, with 9,458 deaths recorded in April - its highest monthly death toll - although the numbers have now started to fall again.

Experts attribute Peru's disastrous performance to a cocktail of factors: poverty, a crumbling public health care system, a national oxygen duopoly that could not meet demand, and the rise of new virus strains.

Poverty manifests itself in a range of ways in the context of COVID-19, from overcrowded, multigenerational housing, to the fact that 70 percent of the Peruvian workforce is informally employed, who regularly have to violate public health restrictions or go hungry.

The composition of the crisis was widespread disinformation about coronavirus, including even experts urging people to use anti-malarial drugs hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, an anti-parasite, to prevent or treat COVID-19.

According to scientific studies, no medication works, and both can have a 'collateral effect', said Carlos Lescano, president of the Peruvian Association of Intensive Care Physicians.

Yet, with Peru's overwhelming health care system - the national intensive care bed waiting list hit 2,000 patients last month - many Peruvians have had only one choice but to treat seriously ill relatives at home, while some oxygen at speculative prices bought.