The head of the Intelligence and Data Analysis Unit (UIAD) of the
Social Health Insurance System (EsSalud), Dante Cersso, has confirmed that, for the third consecutive week, there is a downward trend in the number of COVID-19 infections nationwide.
This scenario occurs after Peru saw a peak of 342,000 infections during the third week of January amid the third wave.
He explained that the figure was significantly higher than the peaks of 60,000 cases on average reached during the first and second waves.
The peak of the third wave exceeded five times the ones of the first and second waves —61,900 and 67,000 cases, respectively— which shows how severe the last wave of infections has been, he remarked.
In an interview with
Andina news agency, the EsSalud's spokesperson commented that, according to the figures, confirmed infections reached almost one million only in January.
"This figure must be taken into consideration because one in three cases that occurred in the country throughout the entire pandemic was reported in January this year, and this was due to the
Omicron variant," he pointed put.
Cersso went on to say that 239,000 new cases were confirmed in the fourth week of January, 2022, while 114,000 were reported in the first week of February, and the figure is expected to drop to 50,000, meaning half of the cases reported in the previous week.
"This is good news because the number of new infections has started to decline since it began to take off in the third week of December; cases are decreasing nationwide," he expressed.
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Published: 2/10/2022