Peru exceeds 2 million Covid-19 cases and begins to vaccinate pregnant women

Peru this Saturday surpassed two million total cases of covid-19, of which more than 188,400 have died, while the health authorities included pregnant women in Lima in the vaccination process.

The Ministry of Health reported that in the last 24 hours another 1,772 cases were detected and there were 191 deaths, which brought the total number of infected to 2,001,059 and to 188,443 deaths.

Of the active cases, 10,711 were hospitalized and 2,548 of these in intensive care units (ICU).

The health authorities also reported that so far 5,282,488 doses of vaccines against the disease have been applied, with a total of 1,829,066 people already immunized with two doses.

VACCINATION OF PREGNANT

On the other hand, this Saturday began the vaccination process of pregnant women from 28 weeks, in a ceremony attended by the president of the Council of Ministers, Violeta Bermúdez, and the ministers of Health, Óscar Ugarte, and Foreign Trade and Tourism, Claudia Cornejo.

The Health Ministry reported that it has a goal of inoculating 30,000 pregnant women a month, initially in Lima and the neighboring port of Callao.

Ugarte pointed out that during this month all the elderly and groups such as members of the Armed Forces, firefighters, police officers and other people from the first line of response to the pandemic will be completed.

Bermúdez stressed, for his part, that in recent days more than 100,000 people a day are being vaccinated in the country and remarked that “this effort will continue intensely”, because the Government has “secured more than 62 million vaccines” to immunize “the entire population over 18 years of age until the end of this year 2021.”

INCREASE OF OXYGEN PLANTS

Peruvian authorities reported that the country already has 242 medicinal oxygen plants, purchased and put into operation by the Ministry of Health (Minsa), with the support of regional governments, social security, the health of the Armed Forces and the National Police, as well as the private sector and civil society.

Currently, the medicinal oxygen production capacity is 159.04 tons per day (TPD), destined to cover the demand for this essential resource in health establishments and centers nationwide.

The Minsa stressed that it seeks to “close the oxygen gap at the hospital level and expand access to early oxygenation at the first level of care, in order to meet the needs of the population affected by covid-19.”

Peru has been facing a marked decline in the second wave of covid-19 for more than a month, although the epidemic maintains higher levels in southern areas such as the Arequipa region, where a case of the variant that emerged in India has even been detected.