Andina

Peru: Minsa, regional authorities coordinate measures to tackle third COVID-19 wave

10:30 | Lima, Aug. 11.

Health Minister Hernando Cevallos has met with health directors and managers from regions across the country to address the joint response to an eventual third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Health (Minsa) has reported.

"We are in a race against time, and that involves placing resources correctly and defining clearly what we are going to do to use them rationally and transparently so as to improve our response capacity," it indicated.


Minsa stated that, during the working appointment held on Tuesday at the National Institute of Child Health (INSN) in Lima's San Borja district, Minister Hernando explained that the support for regions is one of the Government's priorities.

Epidemiological situation

Concerning the COVID-19 situation in Peru, the meeting shared valuable information provided by the National Center for Epidemiology, Prevention and Disease Control (CDC).

For example, regarding the Delta strain, a 7% increase has been observed since July, with a prediction that it will continue to increase as the weeks go by.  

In this sense, the CDC explains that the Delta variant has been competing strongly with the Gamma strain in the past two months and is already replacing the Lambda variant.

As for the third wave, it is estimated that —in the worst-case scenario— 80% of detected cases will be asymptomatic, while the remaining 20% will be hospitalized.

Of this percentage, 5% of cases will be identified as very high risk. Consequently, patients will be treated in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of health centers.

(END) NDP/MAO/RMB/MVB

Published: 8/11/2021