More than fifty Peruvians marched through the streets of Lima on Thursday protesting against the quarantine ordered by the government to stop infections from the new coronavirus.
Several with the mask hanging from the neck, or leaving the nose uncovered, carried signs with phrases such as “the use of the mask is a health hazard” or “not at the touch of bankruptcy.”
The protesters oppose the lockdown decreed in the capital and other regions of the country because they say it will harm business and believe that the virus only attacks vulnerable people.
“There are 15 days that we are not going to work or have income. What are we going to eat with? The people want to go out to work, ”said Andrea Medina, one of those who was marching. “They begin 15 days and then another 15 more and thus we will be locked up for three or four months,” he said.
Some identified themselves as supporters of parties on the right and others on the left. Before leaving, several argued among themselves disqualifying themselves for their political ideas.
On Tuesday the government of interim president Francisco Sagasti announced a quarantine in the capital and other regions of the country that will begin on Sunday until February 14. Hospitals are collapsed due to an increase in infections from the new coronavirus.
It is the second time that Peru returns to the confinement. The first quarantine lasted 106 days and caused a collapse of the fragile local economy whose gross domestic product fell 12 points in 2020.
Peru, of 33 million inhabitants, awaits the arrival of a million doses from the pharmaceutical company Sinopharm to vaccinate health personnel. There is no vaccination date for the rest of the population.
In less than a year after the pandemic began, more than 40,000 have died and more than a million inhabitants have been infected.
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