Peru added 111,000 deaths from Covid-19 to official toll and topped world rankings

The updated figure as of May 22 is 180,764 deaths from the pandemic, Bermúdez told a press conference, after receiving the recommendation of the technical group created in April and composed of Peruvian experts and international organizations. The previous official death toll was 69,342 deaths on Sunday.

The group proposed changing the criteria for recording deaths from the pandemic after determining that “the current methodology has two limits that generate a subreport of the number of deaths from covid-19.

From now on, the balance will record as cases of “death by covid-19” those who meet one of the seven established technical criteria, including confirmed infections, but also a “probable case” which “presents an epidemiological link with a confirmed case. . “.

It will also be considered a death by pandemic “a suspected case of covid-19 which presents a clinical picture compatible with the disease”, among others.

“Thanks to the work of this team […] we are going to have more comprehensive figures and figures that will be very useful in monitoring the pandemic and taking the appropriate measures to deal with it, ”Bermúdez said.

The technical group was made up of experts from public and private Peruvian entities and the World Health Organization (WHO).

With the previous death toll Peru was the country with the 13th highest pandemic death rate in the world, with 2,103 deaths per million population, according to a count prepared by AFP with official figures.

With the update it becomes the country with the highest death rate in the world, with 5,484 deaths per million inhabitants, far from the 3,077 deceased in the second, Hungary.

With 33 million inhabitants, the Andean country records more than 1.9 million infections and has faced a severe shortage of medical oxygen in previous months.

Bermúdez said that “this report confirms that the reorientation we have made to vaccinate the elderly, starting with adults over 80 years old, was the right decision”.

However, the Minister of Health, Óscar Ugarte, said at the same press conference that the report of the technical group “must not have an impact on the vaccination process, [pues] they are different processes. “

Peru began vaccination on February 9, but the campaign has progressed slowly, surrounded by political controversy, and so far reaching only 5% of the adult population.

Peru has been dealing with attacks from the second wave of the pandemic since December, with a record of nearly 13,000 infections as of April 1.

In Peruvian hospitals, there are now 11,988 patients with covid-19, but the healthcare system has taken a break as bed occupancy is at rest after peaking at 15,547 on April 20.

The death toll has been adjusted to six days before the presidential poll between right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori and leftist Pedro Castillo, who have vowed to speed up vaccination if elected.