Deaths from covid-19 in Peru are more than double those recorded until now.
Authorities reported this Monday that more than 180,000 people have died from coronavirus in the South American country , which is 2.5 times more than the figure of almost 70,000.
This also ranks Peru as the country with the highest per capita death rate in the world in the pandemic.
The new number is consistent with the so-called “excess deaths,” a measure of how many more people are dying compared to trends in previous years.
The president of the Council of Ministers Violeta Bermúdez indicated that the death toll was reviewed by a council of Peruvian and international experts.
The highest rate in the world
Peru has been one of the countries most affected by the pandemic in Latin America, with a saturated public health system and a crisis due to lack of oxygen tanks.
Until now, deaths from the pandemic have only included the deaths of symptomatic patients with a positive test for COVID-19 .
However, the National Death Information System showed that there was an underestimation of deaths.
In April, the Executive created a panel of experts to review the figures.
With the information as of May 22, the total number of deaths from covid-19 was established at 180,764, a large increase compared to the 69,342 that had been counted.
Neighbors Colombia and Bolivia have registered 88,282 and 14,000 deaths, respectively. In contrast, Brazil has one of the highest death figures in the world, with more than 460,000.
But Peru now has the highest number of deaths from covid-19 in the world in relation to the size of its population , (about 32.5 million): around 500 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.
Hungary previously had the worst number of deaths per capita with a rate of 300 per 100,000 people.
