Peru confirms its first case of Covid-19 caused by Indian (Delta) coronavirus variant

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Government of Peru confirmed on Wednesday its first case of the Indian variant of the coronavirus, detected in the southern city of Arequipa, the only one where infections are increasing again, unlike in the rest of the country.

The Delta variant, as this mutation of the coronavirus that emerged in India is now denominated, was detected for the first time in Peru in a 78-year-old woman, according to the Minister of Health, Óscar Ugarte, at the press conference following the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers.

This is a non-imported case, as the patient has not traveled abroad and only refers to having been in contact with a relative suspected of having Covid-19. “So far, only one case has been detected. We cannot affirm that this increase of cases in Arequipa is all due to this variant. So far, we cannot say that,” said Ugarte.

FOURTH VARIANT IN PERU

The head of the Health Ministry indicated that epidemiological surveillance had been carried out on the relatives of the woman infected with the Delta variant, whose sample was taken on May 15 after she reported the typical symptoms of Covid-19.

“Case identification and epidemiological encirclement remain a fundamental strategy to prevent a possible third wave because both that and vaccination will prevent us from experiencing a situation similar to that of the second wave,” said Ugarte.

The presence of the Delta variant of the coronavirus was confirmed despite the precautions taken by the Peruvian government to prevent its arrival, which included the prohibition of commercial flights with Brazil and India.

Thus, there is evidence of the presence of four different variants of the coronavirus in Peru, since in addition to the Indian variant, there is the British (Alpha) variant, the Brazilian (Gamma) variant, and the C.37, also known as Andean variant, which is the most common, causing in principle 80% of the Covid-19 infections in Peru.

AREQUIPA AT “EXTREME RISK

Given this situation, and due to the notable increase of cases in the Arequipa region, Prime Minister, Violeta Bermudez, announced that the Executive decreed an extreme alert in three provinces of that department, including its capital, which is the second-largest city in Peru.

Arequipa is the only large city where an increase in infections has been reported. In contrast, at national level, cases have decreased for the ninth consecutive week, and deaths have also decreased for the seventh week in a row.

Likewise, Bermúdez advised that the Peruvian government has already contracted 62.7 million vaccines against Covid-19 so that the president elected after the elections held Sunday “can have the peace of mind of having more than enough vaccines to vaccinate adults”.

Of this amount of vaccines, 4.5 million doses have already been administered, with an increasing rhythm that reached 122,000 people inoculated on Tuesday.

Peru is one of the world’s epicenters of the Covid-19 pandemic, with more than 180,000 deaths, making it the country with the highest mortality rate in the world, in proportion to population, due to this disease.