Peru admits undercount in virus death toll

Peru's president reported on Wednesday that those killed by the new coronavirus are at least 17,455, a higher toll than previously accounted for after adding a new group of 3,688 deaths.

The new accounted added victims dead between March and the end of June, but it remains to be seen whether there are still more omissions from July 1 onwards.

President Martín Vizcarra said that the undercount was partly due to the pandemic's sudden incursion, which generated chaos in the death count.

Suspicions about Peru registering fewer deaths from the coronavirus began in April when the Peruvian portal for investigative journalism IDL-Reporters showed disparities between the deceased registered at cemeteries and crematoriums.

Also, there were discrepancies between the health records of the regions and the Peruvian Ministry of Health.

Peru's Minister of Health Pilar Mazzetti said that a local committee and the Pan American Health Organization concluded that the new group of deaths should be included.

Peru has 8,000 bureaus that notify deaths and since 2016 there has been an effort to unify the inadequate arrangement because several of these accounts are not reported to the National Death System, SINADEF, that keeps the official nationwide count.

The public health service is almost overwhelmed and intensive care beds are not enough.

After Brazil, Peru has the second-largest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Latin America; and it is the third country with most deaths, after Brazil and Mexico, according to Johns Hopkins University.