Óscar Ugarte, former Minister of Health: “It is premature to consider no longer wearing the mask”

Óscar Ugarte, former Minister of Health in Francisco Sagasti's government, considered that it would be a premature decision to abandon the mandatory use of masks to avoid COVID-19 in public places in Peru, as some congressmen are already proposing.

“I think it's premature to consider no longer wearing the mask. Other countries did so last year and relapsed. European countries have presented fourth, fifth and sixth waves, in the case of Germany, and they had to adopt precautionary measures, such as the case of wearing the mask,” he said in an interview with RPP.

“There are currently countries that have, in fact, broadly relaxed the rules, because their reality is different, their level of vaccination is much higher and, therefore, protection is guaranteed at a higher level. That is not the situation in Peru or in most countries in the southern hemisphere,” he added.

In addition, he pointed out that the Ministry of Health is confusing the population, making him believe that two doses of the vaccine would be enough to combat COVID-19, which would have caused the rate of immunization to fall.

“The message has to be very clear, and reinforce the idea that a third dose is needed. In previous weeks, even the president of the Republic and the premier said that we were fine, because we were on both doses, that is the wrong message. After the second dose the effect is lost, the third is needed, it is the main message that must be directed to the population. So far only 40% of the target population has three doses,” he said.

THEY PLAN NOT TO WEAR MASKS

It should be noted that, in mid-March, a group of congressmen sent an ex officio letter to the president of the Council of Ministers , Aníbal Torres, to cancel the mandatory use of the mask in open spaces. In addition, they asked that the vaccination card should no longer be presented to enter institutions or commercial establishments.

The letter was issued on March 15 and would have been the initiative of Avanza País parliamentarian Alejandro Cavero. In addition, he also has the signatures of his colleagues Patricia Chirinos, Adriana Tudela, Norma Narrow, Alejandro Muñante, among others.

“The population has received with great enthusiasm the lifting of a series of restrictions, the resumption of face-to-face school classes and the measures that allow economic activities to be carried out without prohibitions. However, we consider that some measures remain unrelated to the current situation”, the document reads.

In it, congressmen argue that this uprising would have a positive impact on the country's economic recovery and “the progressive return to a healthy and productive daily life.”

COVID ON THE DOWNSIDE

The latest report issued by Minsa, on April 9, 2022, in Peru recorded the results of 33,186 people sampled, of which 178 were confirmed positive cases of covid-19; while 5 patients died that day from the virus.

In addition, until 22:00 hours on April 9, samples have been processed for 29 million 204,946 people due to covid-19, obtaining 3 million 551,540 confirmed positive cases and 25 million 653,406 negative cases.

To date, there are 1,216 patients hospitalized for COVID-19, of whom 395 are in the ICU with mechanical ventilation.

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