Peru on High Alert Over COVID Cases at Amazon Border

Peru’s Ombudsman Office announced on May 26 that the COVID-19 outbreaks in Brazil and Colombia’s Amazonia conjunct territories have forced them to raise their health alert status.

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“Given the growing expansion of the coronavirus pandemic in the Amazonia, we request to Peru, Colombia and Brazil’s governments to develop a systematic and articulated work to stop the serious expansion of the pandemic,” the Deputy for the Environment, Public Services and Indigenous Peoples of the Ombudsman's Office Alicia Abanto Cabanillas, stated to local news media.

As Abanto explained, both the Loreto and Uyacali governments implemented a precautionary plan in recent weeks. She explained that the Peruvian administration sent a medical team of an obstetrician, a general practitioner, and a nurse who will be in each area for only two days. Besides, none of the health professionals is an epidemiologist or specialist in respiratory diseases.

"We think it is important that they have sent this medical team, but the fact that they are itinerant and with a team of only three people shows us the difficulties that the Peruvian State has to deal with the borders,” Ombudsman Office’s representative stated.

According to recent reports, Loreto and Uyacali registered 3,524 and 2,959 positive cases. Alongside this situation, Colombian borderline regions also record over a thousand confirmed cases and Brazil’s native communities report 91 deaths. 

“The pandemic is in the first stage. There is a great joint challenge between Peru, Colombia, and Brazil to be able to attend adequately to all people, especially the entire indigenous population living on the border,” Abanto concluded. 

Thus far, Peru registered 129,751 positive cases, 3,788 deaths, and 52,906 recoveries from the virus.