Health Minister Victor Zamora has affirmed that "the efforts of Peruvians are already bearing fruit," after warning that the country is facing "several COVID-19 epidemics at different times" and that fighting this health emergency —each in their own way— is impossible.
"We monitor the epidemic evolution every day and how it is experienced in every corner of the country. This is a heterogeneous epidemic because it occurs at different rates and its impact is different in every part of Peru," he said.
In addition, restarting activities requires preparation so that "they do not have a negative impact on what we have already accomplished."
The minister explained that applying all
social (distancing) measures "allowed us to save time and experience a much smaller impact (...). If we had not done anything, the number of deaths would be in thousands," as in Spain and Italy.
"Peruvian people's efforts are paying off. Unfortunately, people have died from the disease, but, certainly, we would have seen horrific scenes (if we had not applied social distancing measures)," Zamora said in statements to TV Peru.
The official commented that Spain's health system capacity was exceeded for not taking social distancing measures in time.
"It is 10 times bigger than Peru's and was the third or fourth best health system on the planet before this pandemic," he explained.
(END) JOT/RMB/MVB
Published: 4/24/2020