Peru deaths up, curbs in Chinese city on grim day
Lima revises Covid-19 death toll from 69k to 180k; cases surge in China’s Guangzhou
Peru on Monday more than doubled its official coronavirus death toll, becoming the country with the highest Covid-19 mortality per capita anywhere in the world.
The government said it raised the tally from 69,342 to 180,764 on the advice of a panel of health experts, which found there had been an undercount. With the adjustment, Peru now has the highest coronavirus mortality per capita, with 5,484 deaths per million inhabitants, according to an AFP count.
The country of about 33 million people previously ranked 13th in the world with 2,103 deaths per million, according to
AFP’S data. Hungary is in a distant second place with 3,077 deaths per million.
Peru has registered more than 1.9 million infections to date, and has in recent months suffered acute shortages of oxygen to treat coronavirus patients.
Prime Minister Violeta Bermudez said the toll was adjusted on the advice of a panel that suggested modifying Peru’s recordkeeping criteria.
The panel said the existing methodology generated “an under-representation in the number of Covid-19 deaths”. The criteria were broadened beyond people who tested positive for the virus to include “probable” cases with “an epidemiological link to a confirmed case.”
They will also now include people thought to be infected with the virus who present “a clinical picture compatible with the disease”.
Guangzhou locks down two areas as cases rise
China’s manufacturing hub of Guangzhou imposed lockdowns on two neighbourhoods after an additional 11 cases of Covid-19 were detected in the city. The surrounding province of Guangdong
has already required anyone wishing to travel to other parts of China produce a negative test for the virus taken within the previous 72 hours.
More than 30 cases of local transmission have been detected in the city over recent days, making it the latest virus hot spot in a country that has mostly eliminated domestic infections.
Guangzhou has 15 million people but it wasn’t immediately clear how many people were affected by the lockdowns announced on Tuesday.
In Israel, the government inched closer to lifting Covid-19 restrictions on Tuesday as its caseload remains low following a sweeping nationwide vaccination campaign. People are no longer required to show vaccination certificates to enter restaurants and entertainment venues.
Israel’s health minister Yuli Edelstein said his office would discuss ending an indoor mask requirement over the coming two weeks.