Prognosis

Peru Now World’s Deadliest Covid Hot Spot: Latam Virus Wrap

On a per capita basis, Peru leads world in coronavirus deaths
A quarter of Lima’s population may have been infected

Cemetery workers carry the coffin of a person who died from the coronavirus at the Nueva Esperanza cemetery in Lima, Peru, on June 17.Photographer: Angela Ponce/Bloomberg

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By John Quigley

August 28, 2020 at 2:58 AM UTC

Updated on

August 28, 2020 at 2:04 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Peru has set another grim record by reporting the highest number of deaths per capita from the coronavirus.

With 28,277 confirmed deaths from Covid-19, or 86.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, Peru on Thursday overtook Belgium as the nation with the most victims, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, the IMF and Bloomberg. It comes a week after the South American nation of 33 million posted the world’s deepest economic contraction in the second quarter following a drastic lockdown.