AP
Washington Hispanic:
The government of Peru reported Monday that at least 10,900 children lost at least one of their parents to the new coronavirus and announced that “shortly” they will be awarded an orphan’s pension for $ 54 per month.
“The beneficiaries will receive financial assistance until they turn 18 years old,” said the Minister of Women Silvana Vargas at a press conference on the actions of the government of interim president Francisco Sagasti, who took office on November 17.
Eight months ago, an orphan’s pension for COVID-19 was announced for the first time. The then president Martín Vizcarra assured the parliament that this would be one of his main measures.
Vizcarra was removed from office by Congress in November on suspicion of corruption in his tenure as governor in 2014.
The authorities consider that the death toll from the new coronavirus could be much higher and at the end of January Prime Minister Violeta Bermúdez announced to the press that she had asked health officials “to make an effort to honest the figures.”
Since the onset of the pandemic in Peru last March, more than 1.3 million have been infected and 47,973 have died from this virus, according to the Johns Hopkins University Center for Science and Systems Engineering.
–
