RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Confirmed cases of the delta variant of the coronavirus in Peru have almost doubled during the first week of August, going from 40 to 76, informed this Monday the Minister of Health, Hernando Cevallos.
During a visit to a vaccination center in Lima, Cevallos indicated that they hope to increase the processing capacity of covid-19 detection tests so that the National Health Institute (INS) reaches 10,000 molecular tests (PCR) per day.
The minister emphasized the need to take extreme controls and precautions against the delta variant because it is “twice as contagious and more aggressive”.
However, the Vice-Minister of Public Health, Gustavo Rosell, assured that the delta variant already has a community transmission in the country, making it difficult to follow up the cases to contain its transmission.
Rosell clarified that the predominant variant in the country continues to be lambda, also known as Andean or C37, which is currently responsible for 70% of the cases of covid-19 detected in the country.
Only in the Amazonian regions of Loreto and Ucayali, located on the border with Brazil, the predominant variant is gamma, formerly known as Brazilian.
Although the lambda variant has been the cause of the second wave, Rosell stated that it is not currently of concern, as is the delta variant, which could cause an imminent third wave of contagion.
For this reason, the country is trying to move forward with the vaccination process. However, Minister Cevallos warned of problems with the supply of vaccines for this week, which will prevent the application of new first doses to focus on the second doses of people who have already been vaccinated in previous days and weeks.
Currently, in Peru, more than 6 million people are vaccinated with two doses, equivalent to 18% of the population. In comparison, there are another 2.6 million people who have only one dose at the moment.
Peru is one of the countries most affected globally by the covid-19 pandemic, having accumulated two million cases and almost 200,000 deaths, which makes it boast the highest mortality rate globally for this disease, with almost 600 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.