The Associated Press16:23, Jun 01 2021
Worldwide Covid-19 updates
Lima, Peru – Peru announced a sharp increase in its Covid-19 death toll, saying there have been more than 180,000 fatalities since the pandemic hit the country early last year.
Juan Karita/AP
Bolivian resident Elisabeth Ticona gets a shot of the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine during vaccinations for people over age 50, on the border that connects Desaguadero, Bolivia, with Desaguadero, Peru, Friday, May 21, 2021. The announcement was made in the presidential palace during the presentation of a report by a working group commissioned to analyse and update the death toll. The results of the study put the new toll at 180,764 in a population of about 32.6 million, compared to recent data indicating that 69,342 people had died from Covid-19.
Peru said that its COVID-19 death toll is almost three times as high as it had officially counted, making it one of the hardest-hit nations during the pandemic relative to its population.
In a report released Monday, which combined deaths from multiple databases and reclassified fatalities, the government said that 180,764 people died from COVID-19 through May 22, almost triple the official death toll of about 68,000. The new figure would mean that more people have died per capita in Peru than in Hungary or the Czech Republic, the countries with the highest official death tolls per person, according to a New York Times database.