Santa cheers up kids in Peru amid COVID measures

A few days before Christmas, on the outskirts of the Peruvian capital, Lima, a plastic bubble is helping keep Santa Claus and visiting children safe from COVID-19. The barrier allows the youngsters to approach Santa with confidence, leave their wish lists and talk with him with all the biosecurity measures in place.

Staff from the Comas district municipality also take the children's temperature, disinfect their hands and immediately after a child leaves, disinfect the exterior of the bubble to prevent any type of contagion to the next visitor in line. The local government is hoping COVID-19 is not the Grinch who steals Christmas since most kids are shut at home, with schools closed and a lack of other outdoor activities

Daniel Pizarro Obregón was playing Santa this year. A Peruvian who lived in Venezuela for 40 years working as an electrician, the economic crisis there brought him back home to Peru where he now works for the Comas district municipality. "And what they (the children) ask the most is health, prosperity and food, that is what they are asking, and that there be work for their father, many of them ask for that, so that makes me sad," Pizarro said.