Sanitary Collapse in Peru: No Intensive Care Beds Left in Lima and Callao – Ombudsman
RIO DE JANERIO, BRAZIL – The Ombudsman’s Office in Peru warned that there is no intensive care bed available in Lima and the neighboring port of Callao, given the speed with which the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic is advancing, which is causing the weak local health system to collapse.
Nationwide, 10,998 citizens are hospitalized with varying degrees of severity. In the capital, the pressure on the health system returns to distressing levels: none of the 929 intensive care beds reported by the Ombudsman remain, whose registry does not include establishments linked to the security forces, pediatric hospitals and some specific organizations.
For its part, the report by OpenCovid Peru, a team of scientists and researchers that analyzes official data, had indicated on Friday, January 22nd, that out of 1,065 ICU beds in Lima and Callao, only 10 were available. But there are dozens of hospitalized patients awaiting transfer to these units.
Alicia Abanto, deputy of the Defensoría, urged to impose new restrictions on the government: “It is necessary that the Council of Ministers evaluate and take quick measures. This situation that occurs in the capital, that there are no longer ICU beds available, it deserves much faster decision making. We urge public and private entities that telework be privileged to reduce the mobility of people”, He told Canal N.
Both cities have a curfew established between 9pm and 4am, to which new restrictions on private vehicle traffic have now been added on Sundays.
This week, they re-registered long lines to buy a medical oxygen cylinder, key input for the treatment of the disease. “Demand has definitely skyrocketed and the sale of oxygen has increased so much that the plant has to close because there is no longer enough” to serve the public, Gabriel Cárdenas, co-owner of PGO, a company that markets oxygen, told .. in Lima. “In just two days the demand has increased fivefold. The worst days are coming for the second wave,” predicted Cárdenas.
Peru faces a second wave of infections since the beginning of January, and even registers cases with the British strain of the coronavirus. The death toll went from an average of 50 a day in a month to more than 100 in the last week. And daily infections grew from 1,000 to 5,000.
This Saturday, the Ministry of Health notified 3,393 new infections and 181 deaths caused by the disease. With these figures, the number of deaths due to COVID-19 has risen to 39,608, while the number of cases stands at 1,093,938.
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