The President of the Republic Martin Vizcarra on Wednesday afternoon affirmed that
In this sense, the top official explained that COVID-19 generates damage, death, and many losses in all aspects of human life, adding that the efforts were made not to avoid the damage, "but to lower it as much as possible."
"We have deficiencies (...), but in the face of a crisis, the emergency pushes the services to extreme situations. We have taken measures to prevent them from becoming much worse. There is damage, there is pain, there is hunger, there is death, but if we had not taken all the decisions we have made —and we will continue to do so— the damage would have been much worse," he reiterated.
The statesman added that —in order to analyze the problem caused by this pandemic on a national level— it is necessary to make a comparison with countries that have more stable economic situations and more developed health services than the Peruvian ones.
Comparison
The Head of State also took the opportunity to indicate that an effort has been made to increase the number of tests. Since he declared a state of sanitary emergency in mid-March, 296,262 citizens have been tested. The positive cases total 33,931 to date.
In this sense, the top official stressed that the samples taken in Peru exceed those of neighboring countries such as Chile (166,000), Colombia (90,000), Argentina (53,000), or Ecuador (48,000).
"It would have been easy to maintain the same trend of tests and now (...) we would have a number of positive cases that would not be the real one. We want to have accurate, true, and transparent information in order to make the best decisions," he expressed.
(END) JCC/FHG/MVB