Peruvian authorities reported on Friday that a recent study indicated that the new coronavirus infected almost 40% of the capital’s population, with the highest incidence among the poorest neighborhoods.
The Vice Minister of Health, Luis Suárez, said that a seroprevalence study, which detects the number of people who were infected, found that 39.3% of the inhabitants of Lima, the capital and most important city of Peru, have antibodies that indicate who suffered from the disease.
The study indicated that women were infected more than men. “More than a third of the population has already been exposed to the virus,” said Suárez, an epidemiologist by profession.
The authorities also found that the poor, who live crowded together in neighborhoods on the periphery of the capital map, were more infected than the rich. “In the residential districts the seroprevalence is 13.1%, they are populations that have stayed at home … but the higher the poverty they are almost 50%,” he said.
Suárez described the seroprevalence study as one of the largest conducted in the recent history of local epidemiology. He said that the results leave the conclusion that “still most of the population of Lima is susceptible to infection.”
Structural inequality in Peru caused millions without unemployment insurance to take to the streets to seek sustenance for their families.
The country added 36,499 deaths from the virus since the first case that occurred in March.
–
