Gang arrested for ‘selling’ COVID ICU beds in Peru Daily News (via HT Media Ltd.)
PERU: Nine people, including public hospital staff, have been arrested in Peru accused of selling intensive care beds to desperate coronavirus patients for thousands of dollars apiece, police and prosecutors said Thursday.
The nine, which also included the directors of a patient care NGO, were arrested Wednesday and appeared in court the following day.
Prosecutor Reynaldo Abia told reporters an investigation was opened after a complaint from a woman who had a family member with Covid-19 and paid for a bed for them.
The gang allegedly asked her for 82,000 soles (some $20,500) to bump her loved one up on the waiting list for an intensive care bed at the Guillermo Almenara hospital in Lima.
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ICUBEDS PHOTO
The nine, which also included the directors of a patient care NGO, were arrested Wednesday and appeared in court the following day.
Prosecutor Reynaldo Abia told reporters an investigation was opened after a complaint from a woman who had a family member with COVID-19 and paid for a bed for them.
The gang allegedly asked her for 82,000 soles (some $20,500) to bump her loved one up on the waiting list for an intensive care bed at the Guillermo Almenara hospital in Lima.
Peru was very hard hit by the coronavirus epidemic which earlier this year saw its hospitals under extreme pressure, and oxygen supplies running low.
Photo: ANDINA/Ministry of Health of Peru
11:48 | Lima, Feb. 10. On Wednesday, the vaccination of health professionals working in critical areas of patient care resumed very early in the hospitals belonging to Lima Metropolitan Area and Callao region.
On this second day of the administration of Sinopharm vaccine doses which arrived from China last Sunday health personnel were seen since 06:30 a.m. (local time) awaiting their turn to be inoculated at the health establishments of the capital city.
The same happened very early at the National Maternal Perinatal Institute (formerly Maternity of Lima) in Downtown Lima, where nurses well protected with face masks and shield administered vaccines to health personnel under strict sanitary measures and in open spaces.