The Peruvian government decided Wednesday to end the state of health emergency decreed in the country in March 2020 after the first case of the new coronavirus was reported, the Presidency of the Council of Ministers announced today.
“Today the Council of Ministers agreed to lift the state of emergency for Covid-19, thanks to the progress of vaccination and the decrease in cases,” the institution reported in a message posted on its Twitter social network account.
Although it did not add further details, it pointed out that the new measure will be made official soon and includes the repeal of “all restrictions” that remained in force in the Andean nation, among them the mandatory use of masks in public transport.
Likewise, he urged people who have not been vaccinated to do so, since, for the Government, this is the most effective way to face the coronavirus contagion, since it reduces the severe phase of the disease.
This Andean nation, which began to relax the restrictions in previous months, is still experiencing its fourth wave of contagion, which began in June, although the authorities assure that it is in the final stage because there is a notable decrease in the number of daily cases.
The Peruvian administration has decided to lift the sanitary emergency at a time when there has been significant progress in vaccination against the coronavirus, as it has reached a total of 85 million 5,991 doses applied since the immunization campaign began in February 2021.
Of the total number of injections, 26.82 million (93.87 percent) correspond to the first dose, 25.74 million (90.08 percent) to the second, 20.85 million (72.98 percent) to the third, and 5.40 million (21.65 percent) to the fourth booster dose.
After the start of the vaccination process, the number of people hospitalized dropped significantly, and the mortality rate was reduced by 98.5 percent between the second and fourth waves, as reported earlier this month by the Ministry of Health (Minsa).
According to the latest Minsa report, 158 new infections were detected on October 24, bringing the country’s total number of positive cases to 4,152,804 for the entire pandemic.
In the same report, no new deaths were reported, so the South American nation maintains the figure of 216,877 people died due to Covid-19.