Taking a global lens to the COVID data I discovered that Peru has now eclipsed Belgium as the country with the highest level of COVID deaths per capita. I hadn’t heard about this on the national media – so I thought I would share here.
Peru is now at about 966 fatalities per million of population. For context, the US is approximately 600 – which means that Peru has had 50% more fatalities per capita than the US. Peru has a population of 32 million.
You can also see this from the ‘Flu Ratio’ number. That level of deaths is close to 6x what we would expect a typical flu cycle to run (in the US). That’s a blunt instrument – but helps to put this in context.
We note from the data a couple of large upward revisions in the fatality numbers – which are those large spikes occuring in July and August. It looks like muc of the upswing from early July was a result of relaxing of controls.
As of July 1st – Peru entered Phase 3 of economic recovery.
Source: pe.usembassy.gov (see curfew link below)
Thankfully the cases, and fatalities have started to trend down from their peaks in late August.
Peru is currently in a state of emergency. International flights to Peru are closed. Curfews are in place.
We send our thoughts and prayers to the people in Peru and hope for swift and effective leadership to bring COVID under control.
JF Insights 