Peru is one step away from being the country with the highest death rate during the pandemic after having officially exceeded 27,000 deaths from COVID-19, but with an excess number of deaths in this period almost two and a half times higher, since the Death records reveal some 63,000 deaths.
That is the number of accumulated deaths since the beginning of the pandemic compared to the figures of previous years in the Andean country, the sixth country in the world with the most confirmed cases, accumulating already more than 567,000 infections.
With the 27,034 confirmed deaths until this Friday the death rate of the COVID-19 in Peru It is 84 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, only behind Belgium, which registers 87 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.
If the thousands of deceased who died under suspicion of coronavirus are included in the figures, as Belgium did, Peru will far exceed those values. For now, the authorities are very cautious when including cases that have not tested positive for the virus.
This week the National Center for Epidemiology, Prevention and Control of Diseases counted 10,443 suspected deaths of COVID-19, which if confirmed, would raise the number of deaths beyond 37,000.
However, there would still be an excess of some 26,000 deaths still to be explained to reach the 63,000 that appear in the National System of Deaths (Sinadef).
The deceased are reviewed one by one
Since June the Ministry of Health (Minsa) formed a group of experts with the sole mission of reconciling the figures. To do this, they review the death certificates one by one in order to verify if those that record suspicion of COVID-19 were really about the coronavirus or, on the contrary, were a false alarm.
It did so after the World Health Organization (WHO) recommend that States consider suspicious deaths to assess the fatal effect of the disease on the population.
As a result of this work, thousands of cases have already been reviewed that have made it possible to correct the death report on two occasions and add almost 8,000 deaths to the official figures that had not been considered at the time.
“I believe that there is no country in the world that is doing a verification of death figures in parallel with the pandemic. All countries do it once the epidemic is over”Said the Minister of Health of Peru, Pilar Mazzetti on Thursday.
“This means that we are acting with the utmost transparency. Day by day we will incorporate any discrepancies that may exist”He added.
Up to more than 600 deaths daily
Mazzetti acknowledged that the numbers are voluminous, but believes they would be even higher had he not taken any action. “It is not an exponential growth, it is a progressive growth that reflects the difficulties of our health system in a country with a very heterogeneous geography”, He indicated.
That progression was until a few days ago about 600 deaths a day, although only about 200 managed to be confirmed as COVID-19.
With these numbers, deaths rose 117% nationwide compared to the two previous years and quadrupled in Lima and Callao, the port city bordering the capital.
If in Lima between 2,500 and 3,000 people died before the pandemic per month, the emergency has caused between 11,000 and 12,000 people per month to die for three months in a row (May, June and July).
“Now they all say they are COVID, although not all are”, Lamented Marco Antonio Abanto, a worker who this Thursday was building a niche in the Paz y Libertad cemetery in the Lima district of Comas, in the northern cone of the capital.
The limbo of the suspects
This long list of suspicious deaths of COVID-19 entered this week Kelly Cozme, a 23-year-old girl who died accidentally asphyxiated in her home but whom hospital staff treated as a possible case of coronavirus, according to her aunt, Vilma Pine forests
The young woman’s family is convinced that the cause of death was not the coronavirus at all, but they accepted that the death certificate recorded the suspicion of COVID-19 because they could quickly remove the body for burial. Otherwise, they believe the wait could have dragged on for almost a week.
“As it was natural death, the prosecutor gave us a choice if we wanted to declare it as COVID-19 because if not, it would delay”, Pinares explained.
With Andean music by the singer Wilma Contreras, the young woman was buried without a religious ceremony. Only one Our Father prayed in unison for the family. The cement in the niche was still fresh. It had been built the night before.
It was 11:00 in the morning, and the fog that made the quiet place look gloomy was still thick, but Kelly’s was already the second burial of the day in the cemetery. “The usual thing is that funerals are after noon,” said Eugenio Cruz, a father who had come to bring his son flowers.
Scarce spaces in cemeteries
In this funeral whirlwind, activity in the cemeteries is incessant and spaces are scarce in the face of great demand. COVID-19 cases are buried in the highest and most remote part and who cannot afford a niche, must settle for a simple ditch on the hillside with a cross as the only marking of the grave.
After disastrous months, this week a ray of hope has appeared, as the rate of daily deaths shows a slight decrease.
“In Lima and Callao it has been decreasing for seven consecutive days reaching -6%, and in other provinces for 15 consecutive days reaching -15%”Stated on Twitter the statesman Farid Matuk, who was part of the group of experts that advises the Ministry of Health to face the pandemic.
That horizon of normality that is still far off is longed for by Peruvians, who have seen death up close, since most have an acquaintance among the 63,000 deaths from this period of pandemic.
